Kim Possible: Ron's Dinner
by Desslock3
Summary: Ron and Bonnie have never gotten along. But when Ronald is planning on leaving his life in Middleton, he discovers thier are people who have it harder then he does, and Bonnie, down on her luck, learns there are still nice people in the world.
1. Chapter 1

AN: I'm not really a RonBon fan, but I decided to give this a try as a challenge to myself and am sort of pleased with what I came up with. Although this is not an AU there are a few parts in here where you will scratch your head about whats going on, don't worry it will all be explained in later chpaters.

I.

Ronald stood looking longingly across the street towards the church on the other side and considered whether or not to he should go in there. Yes he had received a wedding invitation, a personal one at that, but it would still be a bit akweird for him to be there. And that assumed that he could even be able behave himself in front of Kim and her husband to be. The last time the three of them had gotten together had not ended well, not when you are asked to leave and never come to Chez restaurant again.

Ronald stood there for several minutes thinking about whether or not he should stay or go when the decision was made for him. His ears perked up as the first few notes of the wedding march entered his ears from across the street. As the march continued to play, Ronald knew that he was losing Kim, losing her to the love of her life. Ronald didn't hold that against her, he just wished that he had been that man that she had fallen in love with.

Shoving his hands in to his pockets, Ronald began to walk away from the church before stopping and turned to face the church one last time, "Congratulations KP, have a good life." As Ronald walked away he didn't really care that much where he was going. Neither Hana nor his parents where home, and wouldn't be for several hours, and since Rufus was with Hana today, he couldn't turn to his closest friend. Even Felix and Monique were also both out of the question since they were at Kim's wedding. No, right now Ronald had no one he could turn to.

After a while Ronald found himself standing in front of a local bar. Normally he wasn't much of a drinker, but right now he felt that he could use one. Several hours later, an inebriated Ron left the bar and began to make his way towards his apartment in Lowerton.

II.

After a few moments the insistent knocking on the apartment door stopped for the second time. Thinking that whoever was at the door had finally left, Ronald began to pour himself another drink only to be interrupted when the knocking began again. Sighing in annoyance Ronald staggered to the door and opened it to see who it was that wouldn't leave him alone. "Well hi Tara, how you doing?" Ronald said with an alcohol assisted goofy grin.

"Ronald Stoppable. Glad to see that you even bothered to answer the door this time." Tara said sternly as she crossed her arms across her chest.

"What do you want?"

"I came to check on you." She answered, her voice softening a little.

"You came all the way down from Middleton to Lowerton just to see me?" Ronald said sarcastically as he leaned against the door frame to support himself.

"Might as well since you can't seem to make the trip from Lowerton to Middleton." Tara retorted just as sarcastically

"What makes you think I want to come and see you?"

If Ronald had been sober he might have noticed the look of anger that crossed Tara's face just before she slapped him.

"Damn it Ronald stop being an ass!" Tara yelled. "I'm not talking about me, I'm talking about your family. You're folks haven't seen or heard from you in over a week now and their worried about you. And what about Hana? She keeps asking how come you won't come to see her."

"I just feel like being alone." Ronald said dejectedly.

"Maybe that's what you want, but it's not what you need," Tara said before gently turning Ronald's head till he was face to face with her. She then continued in a softer voice. "Look at your self Ronald, you're a mess. I've never seen you like this before. You look nothing like the person I used to know. Ronald, you were always a nice guy, a real friend, a friend who I'm worried about." Tara stopped as she choked up a bit. "Please, please clean your self up and go see your family, let them know that you're ok." At this point Tara couldn't hold back her tears any more. "Please Ronald, I, I couldn't stand the thought of losing another friend like how, how I lost Bonnie."

As Tara finished she turned and ran away leaving a forlorn Ronald. He knew exactly what Tara meant about losing Bonnie, one day the former high school cheerleader just up and disappeared from the face of the earth. Now months later, no one, even her family, knew where she was or if she was even still alive.

III.

One year later.

She was tired, cold, dirty, and mostly hunger. She was weak from lack of food, and the few scraps that she had been able to dig up over the past few days were far less than she needed so that she could recover from her recent surgical procedure. Surgical procedure, ha, that was a joke, she thought. What she had endured was as close to being a genuine medical procedure as Smartymart was to being at the forefront of fashion. For just a fleeting moment the thought of trying to go back home to her parents and sisters crossed her mind, but she quickly and soundly rejected that idea. She would rather stay out here on the streets than go home again. Not after what they had said to her, and certainly not after what they had done to her.

After a while, having long ago lost any sense of how much time had gone by, she found herself standing in front of a local diner. She had heard about the place before, it had a rep for having good food at a decent price and it catered towards the teenage crowd, that and the owner was a nice guy. She really didn't want to go to him for help but she had pretty much run out of options. Besides with a little luck he wouldn't even remember her, or recognize her in her current state.

IV.

Ronald sighed as he flicked the light switch off in the small building which constituted his lively hood. It had been another long hard week at the diner. But then again they all were, and they were catching up to him. With his Naco royalties nearly gone the bills were starting to pile up and it seemed like no matter what he did he just couldn't seem to make ends meet. Plus Ronald couldn't remember the last time that he had taken a day off, be it the weekend or otherwise. Quite frankly all the long hard weeks were beginning to catch up to him, badly. Even in the poor light outside of the diner, Ronald could see the dark circles under his eyes in his reflection from the window. _Well in a few more days all of that won't matter much_, he thought to himself, _since I'll be closing down the diner for the last time._ Locking the door for the night, Ronald turned around and was about to head for home when he was surprised to see that some one had walked up behind him. She; or at least Ronald assumed it was a woman, was dirty looking and seemed to have a bit of an offending odor about her. She was also a bit thin looking, as though it had been weeks since she had had enough to eat. However, it was when she spoke, that was when Ronald was the most surprised.

"Excuse me sir, could you spare some thing to eat? I don't need much, just any leftovers you were going to throw out."

Ronald looked at the woman for a moment as he contemplated what to do. She looked as though she was very much in need of a good meal, and a bath. The former he could do something about if not the latter. Besides, the Torah said that charity begins at home, and Ronald did sort of consider his diner a sort of home for him. "Sure, I can give you a decent meal." Ronald said with a soft smile.

"Thank you. I promise I won't bother you long, I just need something to eat for tonight."

"Hey no problem. But I warn you that I don't believe in letting any one leave until they are satisfied with their meal," Ronald said as he slid his key back in to the lock and gave it a twist. As the mechanism engaged he wasn't sure which was louder, the click of the lock as it slid open or the sound of things clicking in his mind. Removing the key from the lock he slowly turned around to take a closer look at the young beggar before him. Never in a hundred years would he have thought to see her here and in this state. Still, just to make sure, he asked the question that was on his mind. "Bonnie? Is that you Bonnie?"

Bonnie hesitated for a moment as she considered how to answer. Finally she opted to go with the truth. "Yes, it's me, Bonnie." She answered dejectedly. So much for a little bit of luck she thought. "I'm sorry, I should go."

As Bonnie turned to leave she felt a hand gently grab her by her rather thin arm and stop her from leaving. "Don't leave."

"Why? So you can hold this over me? That the "Queen Bee" Bonnie Rockwaller had to come begging for a hand out? Just so you can get back at me for how I treated you in the past." Bonnie accused as she fought back tears. Over the past couple of years she had lost a lot of things, but her pride had not been one of them.

"No Bonnie, I'm not going to hold that over you or try to get back at you." Ronald said as he slowly shook his head. "I don't see "Queen Bee" Bonnie from high school, I just see another human being who's down on her luck and looks like she really needs a decent meal."

Bonnie stood there and hesitated for a moment as her pride conflicted with her need for food and warmth. After a moment Bonnie finally agreed and followed Ronald in to the diner. "Thank you Ron."

"Think nothing of it, and please, call me Ronald."

As Bonnie followed Ronald in to the small diner where he worked, she got her first real look at the place. It was small, maybe forty feet across and while she couldn't see all the way to the back it couldn't have been more than one hundred feet long. The walls were covered in an eclectic collection of items that ranged from street signs to pictures to clothing and even a stuffed moose head. At best one could call it an odd art collection, at worst one could go so far as to call it all junk. Finishing up her visual tour of the place Bonnie became aware of Ronald pulling out a chair from one of the small wooden tables and offering it to her.

"Here why don't you take a seat while I go and heat us up some food."

"Thank you." Bonnie said as she accepted the seat. At least Ronald still knew his place in the food chain and had offered her a seat. But she also had to admit that it was the nicest thing that any one had done for her in a quite a while. While Ronald was in what passed for a kitchen of his small diner he continued to make try and make conversation with Bonnie.

"Hope you don't mind having a dinning partner tonight, I haven't had dinner yet myself."

"Fine, what ever." Bonnie said unenthusiastically. While she was happy to be receiving a hot meal and was grateful to Ron for giving her one, she wasn't all that excited about having to eat with him. Bonnie's thoughts were soon interrupted by the sound of a pair of glasses being placed on the table.

"Figured you might want something to drink while the food cooks," Ronald explained as he placed a glass of water and a glass of ice tea on the table.

"Is that unsweet tea? I don't like to drink sweet tea."

Ronald sighed in annoyance before answering, "Bonnie, I wouldn't worry about whether or not there's sugar in the tea, it's not going to affect your figure, and to be honest you could probably use the extra calories." As much as he appreciated the fact that Kim and Tara and many of the other former cheerleaders he knew from high school worked hard at maintaining their figures, there were times when their efforts almost seemed obsessive compulsive.

Bonnie stared at Ron for a moment is disbelief, "No, it's not that. I'm not worried about getting fat, I just don't like the way sweet tea tastes."

"Oh. He he, sorry about that Bonnie," Ronald said sheepishly. "It's just that I some times worried about you cheerleaders back in high school. Some of you were as thin as rails and still insisted on counting every calorie."

"I was never anorexic," Bonnie said defensively

"Didn't say you were"

"But you implied it."

"Ok sorry if I did. You're not anorexic." Ronald apologized.

"And don't you forget it." Bonnie said before softening her tone, "But thanks for caring Ron."

"Hey no big, and please I really rather be called Ronald."

"That's the second time you've told me that. Do you mind if I ask why?" Bonnie asked towards Ronald's back as he reentered the kitchen.

"Yes, I do mind. I'd just rather not talk about it. Unless you want to talk about how you wound up begging on the streets." Ronald replied.

Bonnie simply shook her head no.

The lull in the conversation that followed lasted until Ronald brought dinner out. As she waited for her food, Bonnie again wondered why the blond haired man in the kitchen had insisted that she call him Ronald. Had he had a falling out with Kim? If that was the case then it was the perfect payback for both little miss perfect and Ron since she had been forced to be seen with him as the senior homecoming king and queen. However, as the smell of cooking food began to drift in to the dinner room from the kitchen, Bonnie's stomach loudly put an end to her train of thought as it announced it's opinion on the matter.

V.

An hour later as Ronald watched Bonnie finish off her third helping of her mashed potatoes and gravy, he finally asked her the question that had been on his mind for the past forty minutes. "Bonnie, do you have any where to go, I mean like a friends house, or shelter or somewhere you can stay the night?" Ronald asked.

Bonnie simply shook her head no as she finished chewing the last of her food. In the past she would never have eaten three helping of food, or yet alone let someone or some guy see her do that, but she was hungry. Plus Ronald had insisted that she start with small portions so as not to make herself sick from eating too much to fast. As the last bit of food disappeared from her plate Bonnie's mind suddenly raised a large red flag to what Ronald had just said, something that the tasty hot food and his generosity had almost made her over look, something that she had learned as a survival skill over the past couple of years.

"Oh no you don't!" Bonnie suddenly shouted.

"Don't do what?" Ronald asked in confusion.

"I know what you're doing. You think because you helped me out that I owe you now. Next you're going to offer that I come back to your place and spend the night. Well forget it." Bonnie said as she stood up and glared harshly at Ronald.

Ronald sat there in disbelief at what Bonnie had thought he was trying to do. Yes he was going to suggest that she come back to his place, but that was only to get cleaned up. "Bonnie, I wouldn't do that to you." Ronald protested. "Yes I was going to suggest that maybe you could come back to my place to get cleaned up." Then returning Bonnie's glare, Ronald continued. "You don't have to accept my offer, and maybe I should retract it at this point, but I want you to think about something. In all the years that you've known me, have you ever known me to be a cad, or anything less than a gentleman?" Ronald stood, picked up the empty plates on the table and making his way to the kitchen added over his shoulder, "You can finish eating before you answer that."

VI.

"This is the living room and kitchen, the bathroom is in the bedroom," Ronald explained as he gave the nickel tour of his apartment to Bonnie, "And both the bedroom and bathroom door lock from the inside."

"Thank you." Bonnie said softly as she reflected on her earlier mistrust of the man. Yes she had always thought of him as being a loser all through high school, but he had always been a kind and good person. Obviously those things hadn't changed over the years.

"Here, you'll need this too."

Bonnie blinked in confusion as she looked at the bathrobe and two towels which were being handed to her. "What's this for?"

"I figured you would want an extra towel for your hair, Kim always used to want one. As for the bathrobe, I don't know how long you plan on being in the shower, but I doubt your cloths will be done in the washer and dryer before you're done in there. Call it hunch, but I doubt that you want to run around here naked while waiting for your clothes," Ronald explained as he added a disarming lop sided grin at the end.

For the perhaps fifth time that night, Bonnie had lost count of how many exactly, she had to consider the fact that maybe, just maybe, she had been wrong about Ron and that she hadn't treated him fairly in high school. "Thanks for the thought. But please don't try to steal my panties, they're the only pair I have right now." As Ronald watched the small smile cross Bonnie's face as she made her joke, part of him wondered just how much of her statement was meant in jest.

Taking the offered towel and bathrobe, Bonnie stepped in to the bathroom and shed her dirty clothes. Opening the door just a crack, she tossed them in to the bedroom for Ron, err Ronald to retrieve them as she locked the bathroom door. Turning on the water faucets, soon hot water was pouring from the spout and the feel of the rising steam was like a siren's song to Bonnie as she stepped in to the shower. The hot water felt heavenly as it poured over Bonnie's hair and down her skin. It felt so good that she didn't even care that the soap and shampoo were some generic guy smelling types and not the usual fruity herbal scented girlie types that she used in the past. But then again it had been so long that she couldn't remember the last time that she had a chance to do so. Finishing her shower Bonnie stepped out of the tub and wrapping a towel around her body and one around her hair she put on the bathrobe and made her way to the living room.

"Feel better now?"

Bonnie nodded her head as she sat down on to the couch. "Yes, much better."

"I thought you would. Your clothes should be about done in the washer, I'll go and put them in the dryer in a few minutes."

"Thank you."

"No problem." Ronald said nonchalantly.

"No, but you made me your problem tonight." Bonnie answered soberly. "I won't pretend that I didn't treat you badly in high school. In fact you have no reason that you should be helping me now, other than your doing it out of the kindness of your heart."

"Well you know me Bonnie, I'm just a nice guy."

"I know, and tonight you've shown me more kindness than I've seen in a long time. But I won't impose on you for much longer tonight."

"Huh?

"If you don't mind I'll just wait until my clothes are dry and then I'll be out of your hair."

"Your not in my hair." Ronald protested.

"Look Ronald, I do appreciate what you've done for me tonight, but I don't want to stay here ok."

Seeing the confused look on Ronald's face Bonnie explained further. "I just wouldn't feel comfortable with it ok. You're a guy, I'm a girl…"

"I wouldn't take advantage of you." Ronald said incensed.

"I wouldn't take advantage of a good looking girl like you. Ha, I've heard that one before." Bonnie retorted. "Or I'll still call you after we sleep together."

"Fine, think what you want Ms. Queenbee."

"Don't call me that."

"Why? Can't take a little name calling? You were pretty good at dishing it out in high school."

"I just don't like to be called queen bee ok." Bonnie said sounding a little deflated.

Sensing Bonnie's change of attitude, Ronald like wise amped down a bit. "Sorry. I promise not to call you queen bee if you promise not to call me Ron. Deal?"

"Deal."

"Good. But Bonnie, you really aren't in my hair." Ronald said as he stood up. "Now if you'll excuse me madam I need to put your clothes in the dryer."

Two minutes later Ronald returned from the laundry room. Opening the door to his apartment he found Bonnie laying down on his couch, fast asleep. "Figured she would spend the night" Ronald chuckled to himself as he lifted Bonnie's legs up on to the couch before placing a pillow under her head and draping a blanket over her.


	2. Chapter 2

Kim Possible: Ron's Dinner chapter 2

I.

Bonnie awoke to the smell of something good, the smell of food that was cooked instead of being either raw or burnt. She also realized that she was lying on a couch with a wool blanket draped over her. She didn't remember falling sleep yet alone lying down on a couch the night before. That thought scared her, and she quickly checked to see that she was still wearing the robe and towel she had put on last night. Sighing a little in relief that she appeared to be unmolested, Bonnie began to sit up in an attempt to find out where she was and how she had gotten there.

"Good morning."

Looking at the source of the voice, Bonnie suddenly began to recall the events of last night, about her begging for a meal, and meeting Ron, err Ronald. How he had given her a meal and had continuously insisted that she refer to him as Ronald, and had offered her a shower and to help her find a place to stay. But after that it got a bit fuzzy. The only thing that she could recall for sure was that she had made up her mind that she would not stay at his place for the night, and yet here she was.

"How did I end up on the couch?" Bonnie asked.

"I know you didn't want to stay here," Ronald said as he sat down a plate of breakfast in front of Bonnie, "But you were so tired that you fell asleep on the couch the minute you sat down on it. I figured that if you were that tired then you really needed your rest."

Bonnie was only half listening to the explanation as she, with fork in hand, began to dig in to her three cheese omelet, bacon, toast, and juice. Finishing the last of her meal, Bonnie closed her eyes as she sedately leaned back against the couch.

"Thank you Ron, err I mean Ronald." She said with none of the usual sarcasm or I'm better than you attitude that everyone associated with voice. The result was, at least as far as Ronald was concerned, a rather pleasing sound.

"Hey it was no big deal. I'm just glad that you look better than you did yesterday, even with your bed head."

Bonnie's eyes flew open as she bolted upright and gasped in horror as in her mind's eye she imagined a picture of her hair being all tangled, wild, and unkept looking on a picture of her in her most stylish out fit that she would wear to the mall. But as the rational side of her mind caught up with her thoughts, the picture of her in the stylish out fit was replaced by what she looked like not twenty four hours ago. And now here she was, in a warm place, with a roof over her head, cleaner than she had been in weeks, and with a full belly, and she was still worried about how she looked. As the giggles that began to escape from her lips soon became a full felt laughter, Ronald began to wonder about her mental stability. Finally getting over her bout of giggles, probably the first one Bonnie had had in months, she looked at Ronald and asked him a question.

"Thank you for giving me a place to stay last night, and I know that you don't really expect any kind of repayment but I would like to try to repay you somehow."

"Well if you really want to repay me there is one thing you can do, help me at the diner." Ronald answered with a grin.

"Fair enough, but that's a lot easier to do if I'm dressed, and speaking of which where are my clothes?" Bonnie asked sternly.

"Their sitting in a basket in my room, you can go get dressed if you want. And not to worry you can repay me with your clothes on."

II.

After getting dressed and taming her "bed head" hair, Bonnie finally exited Ronald's bed room and announced with a touch of her old Queen Bee flare, "Now that I'm presentable to the world again lets get this day started."

"I didn't think you were that unpresentable to start with." Ronald grinned.

"And don't you forget it," Bonnie said, "now lets talk about payment."

"Payment?"

"Yes payment. You know what I owe you for last night."

"A thank you would be nice."

"Thank you. Now what else do I have to do? You mentioned helping you at your diner, so how long do you want me to work there and how many dishes you want me to wash."

"Bonnie, what makes you think that you _have_ to wash dishes in order to repay me?"

Bonnie rolled her eyes as if she was talking to a child, "Because that's the way it works. A guy gives a girl dinner and a place to stay for the night and she repays him. And judging by the looks of your place here you're not exactly "Ron millionaire" are you."

"No I'm not Ron millionaire," Ronald conceded, "But since you mention it, maybe I could us a little repayment from you."

"That's what I figured, all guys are the same." Bonnie said in disgust.

"Hey you haven't heard me out yet."

"No, but let me guess, it involves me and various states of undress."

"What?! No way Bonnie, I wouldn't demand any kind of repayment like that." Ronald replied in surprise.

"Then I guess it's back to washing dishes as I don't have any money on me."

Ronald sighed in frustration before answering. "Yes you can help me at the diner, but it doesn't include washing dishes."

"Then what?"

"Come to the diner with me and I'll show you."

III.

The car ride to the diner had been quite as the two were wrapped up in their own thoughts after the morning's disagreement. After three songs and one commercial break on the radio, Ronald's beat up used Pontiac came to a stop behind his diner.

"Are you sure about this Bonnie? You don't have to do this you know." Ronald said as he opened the car door.

"Yes I'm sure. I know you don't expect any repayment from me, but I would feel better if you did let me help you around the diner today. I'll do what ever you need me to. I'll wash dishes, I'll sweep the floor, whatever." Bonnie answered as she followed suit.

"Well I said you didn't have to do those things and you don't. But there is something else I would like to know, are you any good at math and accounting? Because I could use some help with that." Ronald grinned kind of sheepishly.

"Sure, I got an A in economics in high school. Besides, as long as you have a calculator then it can't be that hard can it?"

Two minutes later at the back of the diner, Ronald showed Bonnie the broom closet which served as his office. Bonnie could only stand there in a state of shock as she looked at the state of things on Ronald's desk, the term clutter would be far too generous to describe the scene before her. As near as she could tell the paper work on his desk and merged in to a single pile that not only stood almost three feet high, but also hung off the sides of the desk by a good six inches to either side. "Ronald Stoppable, you call this an office? It's an insult to the very concept of organization."

Ronald was struggling for an answer when he heard the bell at his front door chime. Saved by the bell he thought. "Oh look at that, the first customer of the day. Guess I need to go take care of them, I'll leave you here to handle things." He said as he began to retreat out of the office.

IV.

"Hi Bonnie, thought you might like some lunch."

Looking up from the still rather sizable pile of paperwork in front of her Bonnie saw Ronald standing in the door way holding a plate with a sandwich on it.

"Is it lunch time already?"

"Not quite, its only 11 o'clock, but I thought I would make you something before the lunch time rush hits."

"Wow, I didn't realize it was that time already." Bonnie said as she stood and stretched. "But then again taming this mountain of paperwork may well take the rest of the week."

"Hmm, if I didn't know any better I would say that you were trying to find a way to keep your self employed. Either that or your looking for an excuse to hang out with me some more."

"Don't flatter yourself." Bonnie retorted as she accepted the sandwich. "Honestly I don't know how you manage to run your own business, you have overdue and past due bills. Bills that have been more than paid in full, outstanding invoices for items that weren't delivered, and that's all from me just putting things in to like piles. No wonder you and Kim aren't together, no fore thought or organization on your part."

"Now that's the old Bonnie I remember, always a snide remark." Ronald answered sarcastically. "But it shows what you know. Kim and I didn't break up over something so trivial as my lack of organization."

"Then why did you two break up?"

"None of your business, that's between me and Kim." Ronald said as he turned his back on Bonnie and walked back towards his kitchen.

V.

The sound of thunder finally caused Bonnie to look up from the some what smaller but still sizable mess she had been trying to organize on Ronald's desk. Listening to the receding thunder and the patter of rain against the roof made Bonnie glad that the task had taken all day, even if it meant having to spend the day with a loser like Ronald Stoppable. Still any day under a warm roof was better than one in the cold rain one, even if it was spent trying to organize paperwork."

Stepping out of broom closet that served as Ronald's Office, Bonnie spied the man in question as he finished counting out change to the last customer in the restaurant.

"Here's your change, have a good day George."

"Same to you Ronald," the customer said before spying Bonnie. "Oh I see you finally got yourself some help around here, and she's a looker too." With a final wave towards Bonnie and Ronald, George opened his umbrella as he walked through the door and in to the growing darkness.

"Hey Bonnie." Ronald said as he closed the cashier drawer. "Did you finish organizing my stuff?"

"No, but considering the size of mess it would probably take me a few days at the least." Bonnie said as her gaze lingered on the cashier drawer for a second.

"If you want to come back and work on it some more tomorrow I'd be more than happy to let you."

"And what makes you think I want to do that?"

"Well for one thing I'm closing up the shop early today, but if you to want stay here and keep working then I won't hold you back."

"I'll pass. I said I would repay you for last night and I did, so we're even now." Bonnie said as she began to make her towards the door.

"Ok, we're even for last night. But what about tonight?"

"What do you mean what about tonight?"

"Well look at it outside," Ronald said as he pointed out the front window, "It's raining cats and dogs, and if I remember correctly last night you didn't say you had a place to stay."

"It's not like I don't have a place to stay, what do you think I am homeless or something?" Bonnie asked sarcastically.

"That thought had crossed my mind."

"And just what makes you think that? Do you think I can't take care of myself? That I'm broke, that I don't have any friends? That Bonnie Rockwaller needs help, a knight in shining armor?" As some of the old "Queen Bee" Bonnie began to resurface.

Ronald simply rubbed bridge of his nose in frustration before answering. "In a word Bonnie, yes."

Bonnie opened her mouth to respond but was quickly cut off.

"I'm not saying that to belittle or put you down Bonnie, but when I saw you last night, well you looked like you hadn't had a place to stay for quite a while, and more importantly that you hadn't had a friend for a while too."

"That's not true." Bonnie replied quickly.

"Then where ever it is you live it must be a real dive."

Bonnie slowly shook her head no. "I mean it is true about me being homeless. I am homeless. There, I said, I'm homeless. Hold that over me all you want but.." Bonnie stopped to let a sob escape from her, "But don't say I don't have any friends."

Ronald hadn't meant to be that harsh to Bonnie, he had only wanted her to reconsider about staying over at his warm, dry apartment again. But as he watched the brunette sit down and begin to softly cry, Ronald knew that he had struck a raw nerve.

"I'm sorry Bonnie. I didn't mean to upset you like that. I was just offering that you stay the night at my place and out of the rain. I guess I sort of fell back in to the old high school mindset of trading snarky barbs with you instead of being an adult about things and offering help to someone a little less fortunate than I. And your right about one thing, you do have friends, like the one talking to you right now."

"I'm not your friend," Bonnie sobbed softly, "I'm just someone your taking pity on."

"Then maybe we can be friends, it's not like we don't know each other. After all we were on the cheerleading team together in high school."

"Where I treated you like the loser you were."

"Well at least I'm not the one living on the streets, so who's the loser now?"

Bonnie couldn't help but to feel a bit ashamed by the truth of Ronald's words. "Ok so I'm a loser now. There I said it, happy now?"

"Bonnie, get over your self." Ronald sighed. "No I'm happy that you called yourself a loser. You know that I don't get pleasure from some one else's misfortune." Pulling up a chair he sat next to the brunette and continued, "So why don't you let me help you out?"

"Why?" Bonnie quietly asked.

"Why? Why not? You've seen some rough times Bonnie, and to be honest so have I. So as a friend, someone who's been around the block a time or two let me be a shoulder you can cry on." Kneeling down next to Bonnie, Ronald handed her a napkin and waited for her answer.

"That's what she said too."

"What was that Bonnie?"

Dabbing her eyes once, Bonnie lifted her head and looked at Ronald before repeating herself, "I had a friend once that said that same thing. Like you she was a really nice and caring person, and she really helped me out."

"See, I'm not the only person that feels that way. Maybe you should listen to us wise persons, we might learn you a thing or two." Ronald said while holding up three fingers.

Despite herself Bonnie couldn't help but to chuckle a little at the blond man's antics. "Maybe your right."

"Of coarse I'm right. Now lets see what I can whip up for some dinner, I don't know about you but I'm starved."

Over dinner the two had had a long discussion about Bonnie's living arrangements, namely the fact that she didn't have any. Being the gentleman that he was, Ronald had offered to let Bonnie stay the night at his place again. Although this was not something Bonnie had wanted to do, the chance to stay in a warm, dry, and safe place made for a quite convincing argument. As did the list of rules she laid down, such as Bonnie getting to sleep in the bedroom with the door locked while Ronald slept on the couch, that Ronald had agreed to had finally convinced the former "Queen Bee" to stay the one more night at his apartment, or at least until it had stopped raining.

VI.

Bonnie was enjoying the lingering flavor of dinner in mouth as she rode in passenger seat of Ronald's car. Staring out the window as rain continued to fall Bonnie began to wonder just how true the old saying about the fastest way to a "man's" heart was through his stomach or if it was equally applicable to women. If Ronald could cook like this everyday she just might fall to her knees and beg for his hand in marriage. The image of this brought a small grin and slight chuckle to the brunette.

"What's so funny?" Ronald asked.

"What?" Bonnie asked as her thoughts were pulled back to reality.

"Just wondering what brought that smile to your face. It looks good on you, you should wear it more often."

"Compliments will get you no where Mr. Stoppable, although if you want to test that theory that's fine be me. But to answer your question, nothing much, just had a thought is all."

"You don't say. Come to think of it I've had a thought too."

"Well wonders will never cease then."

"Hey low blow there, I haven't even told you what I was thinking about."

"You mean your thought was something coherent and logical, the stars must truly be aligned just right tonight then." Bonnie teased. Although she had fallen far from her place as a "Queen Bee", Bonnie still enjoyed a good verbal sparing.

"Well I was thinking about your panties." Ronald said.

This brought a raised eyebrow from Bonnie, "Want me to smack you before or after you try to dig yourself out of this hole?"

"What? Oh wait that's not what I meant!" Ronald stammered as he attempted to back peddle as fast as possible.

"Then just what were you thinking? After all you've already seen them up close and personal." Bonnie said while adding just a touch of huskiness to her voice.

"I was thinking that you might need some more of them, unless you want me to see them up close and personal again by washing them tonight."

"Are you offering to buy me a pair of panties? That's the nicest thing a guy has done for me in months." Bonnie teased.

"Tell you what then, how about I also buy you a new pair of socks, a shirt, and some pants too. That's got to boost my standing by a few points I'm sure."

"And just what will I owe you for all this? There's no such thing as a free lunch after all." Bonnie replied coldly. Things had been going to well for her lately, so it was probably time for a little bad luck. She also knew that in some way shape or form she was going to have to repay Ronald, with a little luck the repayment wouldn't be to bad, maybe a few extra days helping out at his diner. If that was all it cost her then Bonnie could deal with that, after all there had been times in the past when she had paid more for less.

"Bonnie," Ronald said annoyed, "I don't expect repayment for this."

"Sure, I've heard that one before." Bonnie replied sarcastically.

Shaking his head in disbelief Ronald began to wonder if it was worth trying to be this nice to Bonnie. "Tell you what, you want to repay me for this, fine. Work as my accountant for the rest of the week then."

Bonnie thought about that for a moment before answering. "Ok, but on one condition, you let me help around the diner as need be in addition to just being your accountant." She said while adding air quotes at the end. I want to try to repay you as quickly as possible.

"Deal." Ronald said, "Oh and one more thing."

"What?"

"We're going shopping at SmartyMart."

Bonnie's screams of no could be heard half way across Lowerton.


	3. Chapter 3

Kim Possible: Ron's Dinner

Chapter 3

AN: Yes it's a bit of a short chapter, but I decided better to push out a short one than wait for who knows how long to finish the whole thing.

I.

Exiting the dryness of Ronald's car Bonnie clutched a plastic bag to her chest in an attempt to protect the contents from the rain. Bonnie never would have thought that she would find herself in her current position, yet here she was clutching a bag full of clothes from Smartymart as though they were the most precious thing in her whole life. _Who are you kidding, this is only the second most precious thing, _a small voice said from inside Bonnie's head. Most precious, second most precious, either way she never thought she would have gone shopping in Smartymart with the person she thought was the biggest loser from high school. And yet she had not only done that but she was smiling and almost content about it all.

"Penny for your thoughts?" Ronald asked as he opened the door to his apartment.

"Just a penny?"

"All I can afford right now after setting you up in style."

"Hmmp, I wouldn't call four pairs of underwear, three pairs of socks, a couple of t-shirts and a pair of pants as styling."

"Compared to a few days ago, I would say you're ready to strut down the cat-walk." Ronald said with a lopsided grin as he walked through the living room and in to the kitchen.

"Touché, but don't hold your breath on watching me walk down the cat-walk in these new clothes." Bonnie retorted before smiling. "Still it was nice of you to buy me these clothes since I don't have any others."

"What happened to them?" Ronald asked as he sat out two small plastic cups and filled them with water.

"They were stolen." Bonnie sighed before plopping down on to the couch, "Just one of the dangers of living on the streets."

"I can only imagine." Ronald conceded as he handed Bonnie one of the cups.

"That's all you're going to say about it? No 'It services you right' or anything like that?"

"Why would I do something like that?"

"Payback for how I treated you in high school." Bonnie answered meekly as she lowered her head.

Ronald stared at Bonnie for several seconds as his mind worked to come up with a response. However, his thought process was cut short when Bonnie, having sense that she was being stared at, spoke again.

"Why are you staring at me? I deserve it. It's not like I was ever nice to you."

"Bonnie, we've been over this already. You know I'm not so petty as to try and hold that against you. Yes I didn't like the way you treated me, but that doesn't mean I should do the same to you. What possible good could come of me doing that?"

"It would make me feel better." Bonnie answered softly.

"Say what?" Ronald asked completely perplexed.

Lifting her head to look Ronald in the eyes Bonnie explained, "I'm not quite the same Bonnie I used to be, the old 'Queen Bee" of high school. I've had to grow up a bit and realize that the world doesn't just revolve around me."

"You weren't all that bad in high school."

"Nice try Stoppable, but we both know that I was. Do you know why so many people called me the 'Queen Bee" in school? It didn't have anything to do with comparing me to a queen bee and her drones, but instead it was a worse insult."

"To be fair Bonnie there were several times I called you 'Queen Bee' myself."

"I'm sure both you and Kim did. The difference is that I doubt you meant it the way everyone else did. When they called me 'Queen Bee' the emphasis was on the B."

"Ok let's pretend I have know idea what you're talking about." Ronald said.

"What sort of disparaging word do you know of that begins with B and applies to females?" Seeing the continued confused look on Ronald's face Bonnie decided to tell him. "Bitch! They were calling me a bitch, not only behind my back but in my face as well and I didn't even know it." Bonnie said quite flustered before sighing. "And the worst part was that I actually deserved it most of the time. I'm trying to be a better person, even if I don't really know how to do it. And if that means letting some one give me pay back for how I treated them in high school then that's what I'll do."

"Bonnie, I think that's the most unshelfish thing I've ever heard from you." Ronald said in amazement, "And based on what I've seen from you today I would say you've come a long way in being a better person."

As Bonnie listened to Ronald she began to slowly smile at his compliment and had to wipe away what was the beginning of a tear from her eye.

"Now before you go and get all teary eyed on me…"

"I wasn't crying." Bonnie responded sternly.

"As I was saying…," Ronald stopped to let out a yawn, "I have to be at the diner early tomorrow, which means you have to as well. We should be heading to bed since we'll have to get up around five AM. So if you'll excuse me I need to brush my teeth before you lock me out of the bathroom." With that Ronald got to his feet and walked towards the bathroom.

"Fair enough. I'll let you use the bathroom first since it is yours after all."

"See, being a better person isn't so hard is it?" Ronald teased just before he shut the door.

A few minutes later Ronald emerged from the bathroom and saw that Bonnie had already found an extra blanket and pillow and was attempting to make a bed for him on the couch.

"Thank you."

"Your welcome, just don't expect me to make your bed for you in the morning." Bonnie retorted as she began to walk past Ronald before stopping.

"Something wrong?" Ronald asked.

"Ronald. I. I just wanted to say thank you for my new clothes." As Bonnie finished her thanks she gave Ronald a small peck on his right check. "Goodnight Ronald. See you in the morning." Bonnie said before locking the bedroom door behind her.

Slowly lowering his hand from his check Ronald finally managed to utter a reply to the now shut door, "Goodnight Bonnie and pleasant dreams."

II.

Bonnie awoke with a start. Looking around the unfamiliar surroundings Bonnie fought through the fog of sleep to try to recall where she was. Finding that she was alone in a bed things began to slowly come back to the brunette.

"That's right, I'm at Ronald's place."

Glancing at the clock next to the bed, the glowing numbers on it indicated that it was already five in the morning. Being an early riser, as she had been for most of her life, Bonnie decided it was no use lying in bed anymore and decided to get up. Besides which she and Ronald would be fighting for the bathroom soon enough, so she might as well beat the rush. Speaking of Ronald, the former high school cheerleader wondered how he was doing.

Unlocking the door between the bedroom and the living room, Bonnie poked her head out and spied Ronald sprawled out on the couch, his blanket having nearly completely fallen off of his body during the night. Bonnie couldn't help but to grin at the scene, while he was not as buff as Brick had been Ronald had still filled out nicely. Aside from the dark circles under his eyes she could consider him reasonably attractive.

"Poor Ronald, he looks so uncomfortable." She softly said to herself as she picked up the blanket and gently placed it on him before retreating to the bedroom to take a shower.

Ronald bolted off of the couch and assumed a crouched position as the sound of an alarm going off woke him from his slumber. As the shock of the unexpected sound began to wear off and he exited what Kim used to like to call "mission mode", Ronald noticed a small alarm clock on the coffee table next to here his head had been lying on the couch. Standing up from his crouch Ronald first turned the alarm off and then wondered where it had come from. As far as he knew the only alarm clock he had was in side of his bed room, the one that Bonnie was now occupying.

Bonnie had just pulled her shirt over her head when she heard a knocking on the bedroom door.

"Bonnie, are you in there?"

"Well who else would it be? Unless there are other girls that you let sleep in your room." Bonnie answered snarkyishly.

"Well I do let Hana sleep there when she visits." Ronald answered as Bonnie opened the door.

"Is this going somewhere or did you have a reason you knocked on the door to ask me a question?"

"Oh, I, uh. I just wanted to ask if you knew how an alarm clock got placed next to my head this morning? It surprised the heck out of me."

"Poor baby, scared by a little alarm clock." Bonnie laughed, "I put it there this morning after I got out of bed. Didn't want you to oversleep."

"Which I didn't. But you could have placed it near my feet or something and not next to my head, and set on the loudest setting."

"Look I told you last night I'm trying to be a better person, I didn't say I was good at it yet." Bonnie replied with a "I'm guilty as hell but trying to look innocent" smile. "At any rate I'm done in the bathroom so you can use it now."

Fifteen minutes later a showered but still in the process of shaving Ronald walked out of the bedroom. "Bonnie, can you get the plates out for breakfast? I'm going to have to hurry to make…."

"Make what?" Bonnie asked as she sat two bowls on the kitchenette table.

"Did you make breakfast?"

"Hey try not to sound so shocked there Stoppable. Unlike Kim I can actually make something edible in the kitchen. Although today all I had time to make was some oatmeal."

"That's ok." Ronald said with a smile, "Oatmeal is part of a good for you breakfast, and you just saved me a lot of time this morning."

"No problem. But since I cooked you get to clean up." Bonnie informed her breakfast companion.

After breakfast, and yes Ronald did clean up the breakfast dishes, the two left the apartment and headed for Ronald's car.

"Brrr, it's cold out this morning." Bonnie complained.

"The weather man said this rain storm is supposed to last through tonight it probably won't get above sixty degrees all day."

"Then hurry up and start your car so we can get some heat going."

"Yes malady." Ronald answered sarcastically.

Sensing that she may have pressed her luck too far, Bonnie wisely decided to ride out the remainder of the trip in silence.


	4. Chapter 4

Kim Possible: Ron's Dinner

Chapter 4

I.

"Ok everybody we're here." Ronald announced after he had parked his car and turned off the engine.

"I see that." Bonnie replied as she got out of the car. "Ronald, why are we here so early this morning? It's a couple of minutes till six AM and your diner doesn't even open until 9am."

"I'm getting a food delivery today and it usually takes a good hour to put all the food away." Ronald replied as he opened the door to the diner, "In fact the delivery truck should be arriving any time now."

Not five minutes later a small van pulled up to the front of the diner and out hopped a middle age man.

"Morning Ronald." The large man with an Italian accent called as he exited from his truck. "It'sa good thing youa got a small delivery today. It'sa just me today."

"Hi Luigi, where's your brother?" Ronald asked.

"Ah he'sa outa sick, to much of mamma's spaghetti last night. So it's justa me to haul all this stuff."

"I'll be more than happy to help." Ronald offered as he grabbed a box from Luigi.

"That'sa what I'm goinga to miss about ya Ronald, your good people." Luigi praised as the two carried the food inside.

"Sorry to break your heart Luigi, but nothing stays the same forever, and maybe I can make a new start of things."

"Does thata new start include her?" Luigi asked as he noticed Bonnie for the first time.

"No, she's just helping me to organize my files this week."

"If you say so."

"Please, you men are all alike. You just assume because a woman and man are working together then they must be sleeping together." Bonnie retorted, "Now why did we have to leave your place so darn early if all you're going to do is make snide comments, and what do you mean make a new start of things?"

"Bonnie's right, that was rude of us." Ronald conceded. "Besides we should leave making snide comments to the expert," he teased.

After that comment Bonnie completely lost focus on her question as she felt almost as if she had been slapped in the face by Ronald's comment. Briskly turning around she silently stormed in to the "office" she had been working in since yesterday as much to get away from the hurt as to hide it from the two men. Seeing the look of concern on Luigi's face Ronald reassured the man that Bonnie was just a little cranky because they had to be here so early in the morning. Rightly deciding not to get in to the middle of what very well could be a lover's quarrel Luigi simply nodded his head and continued to unload the truck.

II.

Waving good bye to Luigi as the Italian man drove off to his next delivery Ronald walked back inside of his diner. Closing the back door and locking it the young owner and chef went in search of his current business partner and hopefully still friend.

"Bonnie, can I talk to you a minute?" Roland asked as he poked his head in to what he had begun to jokingly refer to himself as 'Bonnie's' office.

"Why? So you can poke fun at me when I'm not expecting it?" Bonnie asked tersely.

"No. I wanted to apologize for what I said. I meant it in jest but I guess I didn't think about how you might take it."

"That's right you didn't think about how it would affect me." Bonnie retorted angrily. She then took a deep breath to calm herself before continuing, "Ronald, I respect you for the nice person that you are. You don't go around carrying grudges against people, that's why you're willing to help me out even after all I did to you in high school. That's who you are, always have been and probably always will be. I'm not like that. I'm used to wearing a mask to hide my true self and emotions, and last night I let that mask down, to show you that I wanted to change, that I was worthy of your help. Ronald, I need you to be sincere with me for now ok. Please don't joke or poke fun at me, I'm just not ready for that right now."

Ronald stood in the doorway staring at the brunette as she gave her speech that sounded almost pleading at the end. He had just assumed that Bonnie would always be Bonnie, a pillar of strength that could shrug off a few words thrown at her. Apparently he was wrong, something had happened to break down the former ice queen and leave her in this emotionally exhausted and fragile state.

"Ok Bonnie I'll do that for you." Ronald said with a grin. "The last thing you need is to receive mixed signals from the person trying to help you."

"Thank you." Bonnie whispered.

"Now lets let by gones be by gones, I could use your help putting some stuff away."

"I thought you were done with that already, didn't that fat plumber guy, what's his name, Mario, didn't he leave already?"

"No the food guy is Luigi, the fat plumber named Mario is his cousin, and you're right he did leave. But I still have some non-food items like cups and napkins that I need help putting way.

III.

Stepping on to a small step stool Bonnie muttered under her breath as she reached as far up as she could in order to put the last bag of napkins on to the top of the storage self. At five foot six Bonnie was no short little girl, however she was still having a difficult time reaching to the top of these shelves. Maybe she should talk to Ronald about doing something about that in the future is she was going to be here the rest of the week she though to herself. Speaking of the future, hadn't Ronald said something about starting anew? Did that mean he was going to try harder working at his diner or did he plan on moving away? With these thoughts going through her head Bonnie lost track of how close she had come to the edge of the step stool and soon lost her balance. With a scream of surprise Bonnie fell from the step stool towards both the floor below and the cardboard box she had been using to carry the cups, napkins, and other assorted diner supplies in.

Hearing the scream Ronald rushed to investigate what was happening. Arriving on scene he found Bonnie half lying on the floor while the other half of her body had crushed the empty cardboard box it had landed on.

"Bonnie are you ok?" Ronald nervously asked as he kneeled next to the woman.

"No I'm not ok." Bonnie complained as she attempted to sit up, "Ow ow ow."

"Where does it hurt?"

"Here." Bonnie said as she indicated towards her stomach, "That's where I fell on the box."

Gently lifting Bonnie's shirt a little Ronald checked for bleeding or bruising. "I don't see any bleeding or bruising."

"It still hurts." Bonnie protested.

"Here, I'll help you to your office and get you something for the pain." Ronald said as he gently yet firmly lifted Bonnie to her feet and helped her walk to the office.

Helping Bonnie to her seat, Ronald then went in search of some pain medication. Returning a couple of minutes later Ronald handed Bonnie a glass of water and two white pills. "Aspirin was all I could find."

"Thanks, their better than nothing." Bonnie assured him.

"Well I need to finish getting the place ready to open, why don't you just take it easy in here for a while and let me know if you need anything."

"I will."

Popping the aspirin in her mouth and chasing them with some water Bonnie slowly turned her attention to the desk and pile of paperwork in front of her. While she had made a good dent in cleaning up Ronald's book keeping, and she did use the term loosely, she still had a ways to go. Letting her eyes drift over the piles of stuff her attention was soon caught by a small picture frame sitting on the corner of the desk and nearly buried by documents. Lifting the item from underneath its paper tomb Bonnie saw that it was a picture of Kim and Ronald. Counting the one hanging in the diner, plus the four others in Ronald's apartment, it was apparent to Bonnie that Ronald was still pretty hung up on the red head. Sighing Bonnie put the framed picture back down where she had picked it up from.

"Kim, I don't know why you and Ronald broke up but I can't imagine that it was anything that he did. But what ever your reason I hope it was worth it."

IV.

Bonnie was feeling rather pleased with herself as she placed the last of the paperwork that had constituted the mess on Ronald's desk in to its proper pile. After a few hours of work she had finished the task of sorting the paperwork in to like piles and now she could begin the work of trying to straighten out his books. But if the state of his desk was any indication of his record keeping skills she very well might find herself working for Ronald past the end of the week. Not that that would be the worst thing in the world she thought. Ronald was a nice guy after all and had gone out of his way to help her out, even if she didn't feel as though she fully deserved it. Plus as long as he kept cooking those delicious meals that he had always been known for then Bonnie really couldn't see a down side to things. True Ronald still wasn't a snappy dresser, and probably never would be, but at least that meant that he would never outshine Bonnie.

"Gah! Where did that thought come from?" Bonnie muttered to herself as she banished the thought of the two of them together. "I must be working to hard."

Leaning back in her chair as she rubbed her eyes, Bonnie did sort of wonder how and why life had turned out the way it had. When she was in high school she never would have figured that she would be living on the streets, abandoned and alone. Nor did she think that she would be working for the person that at the time she considered the biggest loser on the planet. The news that Kim had dumped said former loser was quite surprise, but not completely. Bonnie had always thought her biggest rival could do better than Ronald, after all she was quite attractive and smart. But then again Kim was, even though she would never admit it, also a bit shallow and insecure when it came to things like relationships, plus Kim was know for her temper and being hard headed.

Bonnie's musings and trip down memory lane were soon cut short by someone calling out her name.

"Bonnie," Ronald called, "I need your help please. Can you run the register for a bit while I get caught up on things in the kitchen."

"Sure thing." Bonnie answered. Her abdomen was still a bit sore from her fall earlier in the morning and maybe running the cash register for a while would help to take her mind off of it. Walking up to the front of the diner Bonnie placed her self behind the cash register and gently gave the cash drawer a test tug to see if it would open. To her surprise the cash drawer slid open easily revealing its contents inside, however, before Bonnie could ponder this event any further her attention was pulled back to the here and present by an approaching customer.

"Excuse me but the person who was here before you didn't give me the correct change." A young looking teenage girl with strawberry blonde hair said, "I guess he thought I had only given him a twenty when I really gave him a fifty."

Bonnie looked at the girl skeptically. While Bonnie had never hurt for money through most of high school she could still count on one hand the number of times that she had actually carried a fifty dollar bill with her. "I'll have to check with Ronald since he was the one you spoke to."

"Are you saying you don't believe me?" The girl accused.

"Yes." Was Bonnie's simple reply.

"I can't believe this. Do you know who I am?"

"No. Do you know who I am?"

"Yeah, you're a nobody."

"I'm the nobody who's going to see if you get the change you claim that you're owed."

"Oh wait I was wrong, your not a nobody, I know who you are now, you're a loser. Somebody lets you run a cash register and suddenly you think you're all high and powerful, well you're not, you're just a loser wearing last year's clothes. You wouldn't know style if it hit you in the face."

Bonnie took a slow deep breath to help calm herself before answering. As much as she would have loved to have ripped in to the girl and put her in her place this was Ronald's restaurant, and that meant treating even stuck up annoying customers nicely. Plus Bonnie was determined to live up to her commitment about being a better person. "I may be a loser, but at least I'm not a thief."

"What?! How dare you call me a thief. I'm just trying to get what's mine."

"Sure you are sister, but I'm not buying it." Bonnie declared as she folded her arms across her chest.

"Hmmph, don't call me sister. What would a popular cheerleader like me have in common with a mere wage slave like you?"

"Sadly more than I care to admit." Bonnie sighed as she came to realize just how much of a mirror reflection of herself the strawberry blonde woman represented.

"Is there a problem here?" Ronald asked, his question breaking the verbal sparring between the two women.

"Yes, this girl here claims she gave you a fifty dollar bill to pay for her meal but you only gave her change on a twenty. So unless you happened to pocket a fifty dollar bill there isn't one in this cash register." Bonnie stated while slightly emphasizing the word girl.

"Well I don't have any pockets on me," Ronald said as he lifted his cooking apron above his pants, "And if there isn't a fifty in the cash drawer then you must be mistaken miss."

"Um well if you don't have it and she doesn't have it then maybe I did make a mistake." The young woman said as she attempted to back pedal from her earlier accusation.

"Just make sure you have your facts straight next time." Ronald suggested diplomatically before returning to the kitchen.

Seeing that she had lost the battle, the strawberry blonde cheerleader decided to direct her anger at the only remaining target by glaring at Bonnie. However, the brunette was more than willing to return the favor as the two began a new battle of wills.

"I doubt you can stay here all day glaring at me, but I can stay here, this is my job." Bonnie finally said breaking the stalemate between the two.

"You act as though you're proud of that."

"Compared to a couple of jobs I've had in the past, I am."

"Hmmph, it suits you. I wouldn't want to waste my time in a dump like this anyways." The girl said as she turned to leave.

"Good, then we don't have to worry about ever seeing you again." Bonnie stated to the cheerleaders retreating backside.

Thirty minutes later as Bonnie stepped in to the kitchen to let Ronald know that she had finished with the last of the lunch time customers she stood there for a minute and watched as Ronald moved about the kitchen preparing several meals at once. Bonnie considered whether or not she wanted to confront him about his, at best, rather weak support of her against the cheerleader. But Ronald looked way too busy right now, besides, she figured she could talk to him later that night. Going back to the office Bonnie decided to do some more paperwork to take her mind off of the whole matter. Sitting down at her desk Bonnie gently massaged the temple of her head in an attempt to rid herself of a headache. Spying the small bottle of aspirin from earlier in the day, Bonnie quickly swallowed a pill before diving in to the paperwork before her.

V.

"Bonnie?"

"Eeeekk!" Bonnie screamed as she felt a hand gently touch her shoulder.

"He he, sorry about that Bonnie, didn't mean to scare you like that." Ronald apologized sheepishly.

"Damn straight that wasn't funny." Bonnie fumed as she stood up to glare at Ronald, "What's with sneaking up on me like that? Do you think you're a ninja or something?"

"Sorry, I called your name but you didn't seem to hear me. I guess you were pretty focused on what ever you're working on. As for being a ninja, I've been accused of that before."

Bonnie took a deep claiming breath to remove some of the annoyance from her voice before speaking again, "Yes I was. I wasn't able to focus all of my efforts on sorting out your paperwork here since you had me doing other tasks today. And don't think you can fool me about being a ninja, I've seen how many times you either lost your pants or generally managed to clutz things up in the past."

"Sorry about that, but I did need your help this morning and this afternoon."

"And stop apologizing. It makes you sound so weak, like your running from a problem."

"What? What are you talking about Bonnie?" Ronald asked perplexed.

"You apologized to me three times tonight, you all but apologized to that girl today instead of throwing her out."

"Hey, I apologized to you because I really did feel sorry for scaring you. But who are you to tell me how to run my business?" Ronald protested.

"Well maybe somebody should." Bonnie said as she grabbed a piece of paper off of the desk that she had been working on before her fright. "See this number here?" Bonnie asked as she pointed to a large number in red. "That's how much you were going to be in the hole at the end of the month. See this number here, its smaller. That's the new number from me straightening out some of your mess."

Ronald took a look at the two numbers and he was impressed, quite impressed, the smaller number was almost half of the first number. "You were able to save me that much money today?"

"Yes! And what do I get for my efforts?" Bonnie asked snidely.

"Well if you drop the attitude I maybe I'll make us some dinner." Ronald replied equally snidely.

At the mention of the word dinner Bonnie's stomach growled in agreement.

"See, your attitude says no but your stomach says yes." Ronald said with a grin, "Besides it's after eight pm and I've kicked out the last of the customers, so now it's our turn to eat."

"It's really eight at night?" Bonnie asked in surprise, "I didn't know it was that late, no wonder I'm cranky."

"I hope that explains it, even this 'kinder gentler' Bonnie can be a bear to deal with when she's cranky. Now come on, our dinners getting cold."

"Hmmph, I may just pass up dinner if you're going to keep making subtle insults about a woman's time of the month." Bonnie both teased and threatened.

"Who said I was referring to a woman's time of the month? I was simply talking about you."

"Touche."

Exiting the "office", the former school mates made their way to a table in the dinning room that Ronald had set their food on.

"Hmm, it smells great." Bonnie enthused.

"Well hunger is the best spice." Ronald counted as he pulled out a chair for Bonnie.

"Thank you, but I can seat myself." Bonnie said even as she took the offered seat, "But I'm not just saying that because I'm hungry, it really does smell great."

"You've had a long day you're probably tired. But dinner is just some leftovers from today, you should see what I can do with fresh stuff from scratch."

"Yes I am tired, and yes I will hold you to that."

"To what?"

"Someday I'd like to see what you can do when cooking from scratch."

Ronald smiled for a moment before his expression turned more serious as he began to serve Bonnie.

"Bonnie, I don't mean to pry in to your life to much…"

"But you're going to do it any ways." Bonnie interrupted.

"He he, yeah I guess I am." Ronald answered as he scratched the back of his head, "That is unless you don't want to. Because I would totally understand. I don't want you to think you have to, but if you want to that's cool too."

Bonnie couldn't help but to slightly giggle at the sputtering tongue tripped man before her. Still the same old Ronald. But then Bonnie's face creased in contemplation as she debated how to answer his request.

"If you don't want to talk about it that's fine." Ronald reiterated.

"No!" Bonnie almost shouted, "I mean you're right that I don't want to talk about it. But, its just that so much has happened to me it's hard to believe it's only been four years since high school."

"Five actually, but why quibble." Ronald was about to say more but a dirty look from Bonnie quickly shut him up.

"Whatever. But I guess what bothers me the most is that no one knows what all has happened to me. Not my family, my friends, even my best friend."

"That's easy to fix, we can just give Tara a call. I think I have her number here some where, maybe in my office." Ronald said as he tried to remember just here he had put the particular scrap of paper. "Or if I can't find it there then we can look at my apartment, or maybe you can just call your parents."

"No it's not in your office Ronald, I would have found it, if it could be found, by now." Bonnie snickered, "But I'm not talking about Tara, and I sure as hell don't want to talk to my family."

This statement caused Ronald to sit up and stare face to face with Bonnie. "You don't want to talk to your family, and Tara's not your best friend? Don't tell her that, the last time I saw here she was still depressed over your disappearance."

"Tara's a sweet girl and I know she put up with a lot of crap from me during high school, especially when my parents got divorced, but I can't say she's my best friend". Bonnie answered as she finished the last of her dinner.

"Why not? She was always there for you in high school, even after you quite the cheerleader squad she would insist that we invite you to "cheerleader" get togethers. Or did you drop her once you two stopped going to the same school?" Ronald asked coldly as he collected both his and Bonnie's dinner plates to take them to the kitchen, "And I still can't believe that you don't want to talk to your family. What about your mom or your sisters?"

"No, it's not." Bonnie replied harshly as she followed Ronald in to the kitchen. "Is that the way you think of me, as being so shallow that I would dump someone as soon as I didn't need them?"

"The Bonnie I knew in high school, yes." Ronald stated as she began to wash the dishes.

"And that's what I'm having to fight against Ronald, the old Bonnie that everyone knows and has preconceptions about." Bonnie sighed before continuing. "Look, Tara's a good friend, but she and I just don't have the bond that I do with Molly."

"Who?"

Bonnie grabbed a towel and began to dry the dishes that Ronald handed her before speaking again. "Look it's a long story so let me start in the beginning, and do you promise not to interrupt?" Seeing Ronald nod his head Bonnie continued, "During our junior year my parents decided to get a divorce. It was pretty ugly, they would fight over everything, money, assets, my sisters and me. But the worst part came when my dad moved out and made my sisters and I decide who we wanted to side with, him or my mom. My sisters choose to support my father, I chose to support my mom."

"That's rough having to chose which parent to live with." Ronald conceded before asking Bonnie how long she planned on re-drying the same dish she had in her hands for the past several minutes.

"No interrupting." Bonnie announced as she sat down the plate before continuing. "No not live with, but to support and back up the person you weren't blaming for the divorce. I guess in essence my dad wanted a yes man or men, and he got that in my sisters. He felt that I had betrayed him because I decided to stay with my mom. Almost as if my choice was my way of saying that I was blaming him for the divorce."

"Does he still feel that way?"

"I don't know, and I really couldn't care less about that cad or those twin witches that are my sisters." Bonnie spat venomously. "I hate them all."

"Don't you think that's kind of harsh? I mean no one should hate their family."

Bonnie glared at Ronald, as much for this continuing interruptions as for his questioning of her anger against her sisters. "You're right, no one should hate their family, but in the case of my family they deserve it. My father was a total ass about things, my mom nearly had a nervous break down and blamed me for it before throwing me out of the house, and my sisters, well they were enablers of all this."

"Wow, sounds like a lot of drama." Ronald replied dumbfounded. Both he and Kim knew that Bonnie had gone through a rough spot during their last year of high school, but they had no idea it was that bad.

"No kidding." Bonnie sighed in defeat at Ronald's continuing interruptions.

"Is that why you quite the cheerleading team? Because of your parents divorce?"

"No, at least not solely because of that," Bonnie answered before taking a yawn, "After I decided to live with my mom that's when I learned that I had inherited my mean streak from my dad. And don't try to say I didn't have a mean streak in high school ok, I admit it that back then I had one a mile wide."

"I'll be generous, it was only three quarters of a mile wide." Ronald said with a small grin, "So how did you find out you inherited a mean streak from your dad?"

"When I was born my dad set up a college fund for me to help pay for college. It wasn't a huge amount; just under fifteen thousand dollars, but it was enough that I wouldn't need to work to pay for college. Any ways I guess he had kept the account solely in his name the whole time because a week after my decision to stay with my mom he went and emptied every penny out of it."

"That's rather umm, what's the word I'm looking for, big school word here, starts with a V…" Ronald rambled.

"Vindictive, and yes it is."

"That still doesn't explain how you ended up on the street."

"No it doesn't." Bonnie answered through a yawn, "But that's something I would rather not talk about right now."

"Don't tell me you're getting all secretive and mysterious again."

Bonnie simply rolled her eyes before answering, "No I'm not getting all 'secretive and mysterious'", Bonnie answered while adding air quotes. "I'm just tired after a long day like today."

"I can't argue with you there." Ronald replied through his own yawn.

"See, I told you." Bonnie responded as she too fought through a yawn.

"Yes you did. But this is still all your fault." Ronald yawned back.

"Stop that!" Bonnie snapped after yet another yawn.

"I can't help it." Ronald responded after another yawn from him.

"That does it! Ronald Stoppable I demand that you take me home this instant so that I can get some sleep." Bonnie stated mock sternly as she rose and walked towards the diner's front door that lead to Ronald's parked car.

"Home? Is that what you're calling my apartment now?" Ronald asked in a teasing manner.

Suddenly realizing her verbal faux pax Bonnie stopped dead in her tracks. "Well they say that home is where you lay your head at night."

"Really? I always hear that home is where the heart is."

"Ronald, can we please stop with the verbal bantering tonight? I'm really tired and would just like to get some sleep." Bonnie pleaded.

"Fine, don't worry about me sleeping here on the couch." Ronald retorted mockingly as he walked past Bonnie and through the front door of the diner before stopping. "The sooner you come outside the sooner I can lock up the place."

Taking Ronald's suggestion Bonnie quickly exited the diner and made her way towards Ronald's car and waited for him to lock up the diner.

VI.

After a quite ride home, other than the occasional yawn from the riders, the two young adults arrived back at Ronald's apartment and quickly went their separate ways. Or rather Bonnie attempted to go her separate way with out a thought towards Ronald.

"When I said 'Fine don't worry about me sleeping on the couch' I didn't think you would take me literally."

Stopping at the entrance to the bedroom Bonnie turned and faced her accuser. "Fine, you can use the bathroom to brush your teeth first."

"Thank you." Ronald said as he began to brush his teeth.

However, Bonnie, determined to get in the last word, stood at the bathroom and spoke. "Ronald, just two things. One, I expect you to repay my openness tonight by telling me about your past." As the blond man laid down his toothbrush he asked what the other thing was.

"I want you to know that I enjoyed working at your diner today. It was kind of fun, and I felt like I really did a honest day's work for the first time in a long time."

"Glad to hear that." Ronald said as she exited the bathroom and made his way towards the living room and the coach that had been made up as his bed.

"Oh and Ronald, one more thing."

"Yeah?"

"Good night and pleasant dreams. See you in the morning." With that Bonnie closed the door behind her as she retreated in to the bedroom.

"Pleasant dreams to you too Bonnie. Whether you know it or not, I've got your back.


	5. Chapter 5

AN: Yes another short one, but the fact I was able to get it out so quick should make up for that. Oh and don't worry this is not the end of the story.

Ron's Dinner

Chapter 5

I.

Bonnie slowly opened her eyes and blinked a time or two as she finished waking up. Tossing the sheets off of her she climbed out of bed and drudged toward the bathroom. Arriving at the bathroom Bonnie looked around and discovered two things, one, that she wasn't in Ronald's bathroom. The walls were a dirty white, with the emphasis on the dirty part. In fact everything else in the room looked rather dirty and generally unkept. After a few seconds Bonnie began to recognize some of the items in the room, there was a sink, a small mirror on the wall behind the sink, a toilet, and a small bathtub which had a missing shower curtain. Bonnie remember this room, as much as she didn't want to she remembered it at all. The second thing Bonnie realized was that she was only one foot tall and was standing on the side of the bathtub.

Bonnie's attention was then drawn towards the doorway, there hadn't even been a door on the hinges she recalled, of the run down hotel's bathroom. Walking through the door, her nakedness in full display, a giant sized version of Bonnie was visible to the smaller sized version of herself. In the giant Bonnie's hands were a variety of items which she proceeded to lay out on the cabinet before her, a small bottle of rubbing alcohol, a folded towel, a folded washcloth, a metal rod, and another bottle less than half full of some sort of brownish looking liquid. The tiny version of Bonnie shivered slightly as she recalled how vile tasting the alcohol in the second bottle had been. The smaller version of Bonnie continued to watch as the larger version of herself stepped in to the bathtub and turned on the shower. Taking one last long swing of the brown liquid the larger version of Bonnie then stuffed the rolled up washcloth in to her mouth before bending the end of the metal rod in to a slight hook. The smaller Bonnie knew what was going to happen next and had no desire to watch the event again. She began to yell and scream at the larger Bonnie, pleading, begging her to stop. But the larger Bonnie didn't hear the smaller Bonnie's pleas and continued with what she was doing until bright red blood began to run down her legs and mix with the water as it swirled down the drain.

"No, stop, stop it, STOP!" The smaller Bonnie screamed until the real Bonnie suddenly bolted up right in bed and broke down crying.

"Bonnie, are you alright?" Ronald asked worriedly from the other side of the bedroom door, "Bonnie, answer me. Are you ok?"

Bonnie, through both the dark and tear filled eyes looked towards the door that was keeping Ronald outside of the room. For a moment Bonnie was torn as she debated just how much she was willing to let him in.

"Bonnie?" Ronald asked again. During the past few days He had seen Bonnie depressed and in tears a number of times, but this sounded worse than before. "I heard you call out and start crying."

"I'm fine." Bonnie lied, "I just had a bad dream is all."

"Nightmare more like it." Ronald countered, "You sure you're ok? I'd be willing to listen if you want to talk about it."

"No thank you." Bonnie said monotonely.

"I can sit with you a while if you want."

Bonnie slowly shook her head even though Ronald could not see it. "Thank you Ronald but no. It was just a bad dream, it's over now." With that Bonnie lay back down in Ronald's bed and pulled the blanket all the way up to her neck as if she was trying to either hide or protect herself from something unseen. "Ronald, please go back to bed, I'll be fine."

"You sure?"

"Damn it Ronald I don't want to talk about it." Bonnie snapped as she sat up in the bed but still held the sheets around her. "It was about something I did that I'm not proud of." She explained in a dejected voice.

"Ok Bonnie. I'm here if you need me. Goodnight and pleasant dreams." Ronald said as he gently the door behind him and returned to his couch to try to catch a little more sleep.

It would be several hours later in the day before Bonnie realized the significance of the event. Not only had she felt comfortable enough with Ronald that she hadn't bothered to double check if she had locked the bedroom door, but apparently Ronald respected Bonnie enough that he did not barge in to the room to check on the woman in distress or ignore her request to be left alone. Had Bonnie been able to actually see the look of worry on Ronald's face as he laid back down on his couch Bonnie wouldn't have had to wait for several hours to realize that she might have made the wrong decision. But as it was something else would convince her of that.

II.

Bonnie awoke the next morning feeling, despite her nightmare from the night before, pretty good about both herself and life in general. Despite what her subconscious was trying to tell her she was no longer living on the streets, was pretty much guaranteed three hot meals a day, she was actually positively contributing to something by helping Ronald run his diner, and perhaps most importantly she had found a friend who did not look down on her and cared enough about her to help Bonnie try to be a better person.

"Wow. I sure wouldn't have imagined being so happy over so little when I was in high school." The former cheerleader admitted to her self.

After grabbing a quick shower, Bonnie began to dress but soon stopped to look at her self in the mirror. Her shirt was feeling just a bit tighter as if she was starting to fill out. Considering how well, and frequently, she had been eating over the past few days, and how thin she had gotten over the past few months, that really wasn't much of a surprise. She was going to have to be careful or else she would end up getting fat.

"Fat." She muttered to herself. She hated that word. And she hated how it sounded coming from her mouth even more. The last time she had uttered that word to someone else had been when she and Molly had had a big fight. To be fair Molly was a big girl, but Bonnie still felt bad for how she had, in a bit of spite, called Molly a "fat pig".

Bonnie's musing about things from her past was cut short by a knock on the bedroom door.

"Bonnie are you done in there? I need to get ready too." Ronald said tiredly.

"Sure thing Ronald." Bonnie said as she opened the bedroom door and was surprised at the sight before her. The dark circles underneath his eyes made Ronald look as tired as he sounded.

"Ronald are you ok? You look like you didn't sleep last night."

"I'm fine." Ronald said flatly as he walked past Bonnie and towards the shower.

Bonnie was slight taken aback by Ronald's actions and considered barging in to the bathroom to give her a piece of her mind, or at least that's what the old Bonnie would have done. The newer and stilling trying to improve herself Bonnie instead took a deep breath and considered that maybe Ronald hadn't slept well last night because he was concerned about Bonnie what with her nightmare and screaming. Maybe he just needed a hot shower and hot cup of coffee to help take the edge off. If that was the case there wasn't anything Bonnie could do about the shower part, well one evil thought did creep in to her mind but she dismissed the idea of dumping cold water on him, except stay out of the bathroom and give Ronald a little privacy, but she could do something about a hot cup of coffee.

Fifteen minutes later Ronald, now showered, fully dressed, but not shaved, walked out of the bedroom.

"Here Ronald, I made you some coffee." Bonnie smiled as she handed Ronald a coffee cup full of steaming java. "Hey that stubble look on you isn't too bad, sort of a roughed bad boy look."

"Thanks." Ronald said with little enthusiasm as he accepted the cup.

"Try not to sound so excited next time."

"I'll try." Ronald said with just a faint smile.

After a hasty breakfast and quick check of the weather, which consisted of looking out the window, the duo grabbed Ronald's umbrella and made their way to his car.

Exceeding all bounds of good passenger edicate Bonnie reached to adjust the station on the radio till she found something she liked.

"This is Lowerton's favorite DJ in the morning Chris Cronkite on KROK 95.5FM. Today's weather sucks, not only is it going to be raining all day but that it would be getting cooler this evening. Now with some music, here's Alice Cooper and Poison."

"Your cruel device, your blood like ice. One look could kill, my pain, you're thrill…."

II.

Pulling in to his usual parking spot Ronald put his car in to park and turned off the ignition of his car. Other than the radio it had been a quite ride this morning as both he and Bonnie seemed to be lost in their own thoughts today. Ronald had to admit that he was worried about Bonnie, her nightmare last night had to have been a pretty rough one, plus the fact that she seemed to be falling back in to old habits by trying to deal with things herself was a worrying sign. But there was also something else that he did not want to admit, something that would impact Bonnie greatly. That and in one respect his and Bonnie's spat last night about him running away from problems had been closer to the truth than he felt comfortable admitting.

"Ronald?"

"Yeah?"

"Thank you for looking in on me last night."

"Are you saying that because you feel guilty for waking me in the middle of the night or for the bad coffee you gave me this morning?" Ronald asked with the first bit of humor he had shown all morning.

"For waking you. And the coffee wasn't that bad I just made it a little too strong is all. Besides they say strong coffee will put hair on your chest."

"I think it put some on my tongue. But I didn't know you liked that in a guy, but then again you did say you sort of liked how I looked before I shaved."

"Now you're reading too much in things." Bonnie teased as she held the umbrella over them so Ronald could open up the diner.

Bonnie spent the next hour helping Ronald get ready for the day by helping to fill napkin dispensers, filling ketchup bottles, wiping down tables, and generally getting the diner ready for customers. Through most of that time something kept bugging Bonnie, something that was at the back of her mind and was trying to get to the front but just never quite made it. Bonnie was sure it was important but she just couldn't remember what it was. Maybe if she didn't think on it to hard it would eventually come to her.

Putting the last salt and pepper shaker on the last table to be cleaned Bonnie was slightly annoyed that she still had not remember what she was trying to remember. Hearing the door to the dinner open Bonnie was also slightly annoyed to see that customers were coming so early in the day. All through high school Bonnie had always attempted to keep an entourage about her, but just because she had people surrounding her didn't mean that she was exactly a people person. Thus as soon as she was done helping Ronald get the diner ready for the day Bonnie slipped away to the broom closet of an office she had been using to immerse herself in crunching numbers again.

III.

Bonnie leaned back in her chair with a smile on her face. She had been crunching numbers all day and had mostly closed the gap between Ronald's income and expenses for the diner, or at least for this month. Her accounting and reconciling of bills hadn't covered all of Ronald's expenses, but if he would raise the price of his meals by a mere twenty five cents then he would at least be breaking even. Twenty five cents wasn't much and she was sure that he would buy off on such a small price increase. Now all she had to do was give this bit of information to Ronald, which would be much easier to do after she had used the restroom. Glancing at the clock on the wall Bonnie observed that almost three hours had gone by since she had sat down at the desk, no wonder she needed to use the restroom so badly.

Ronald walked to "Bonnie's" office and was about to ask her to watch the register for him so he could take a restroom break. But seeing that Bonnie had stepped out of "her" office to use the restroom Ronald decided that now was a good time to place the phone call he needed to make. Quickly dialing in the numbers on the card he held in hand, Ronald was soon connected with the person he was hoping to reach.

"Hello Mr. Graves, it's Ronald Stoppable."

"Hi Ronald, nice to hear from you. How are you doing young man?"

"Better than some people I know. Mr. Graves, I need to make this quick but I wanted to schedule a time for you to come by and asses the value of the diner."

"So you've finally made up your mind to close down and sell it off then?"

"Yes I'm afraid so."

"I'm sorry to hear that Ronald. I had hoped that things would have worked out for you."

"Yeah me too."

"Tell you what, how about next Tuesday around nine AM, does that work for you?"

"Nine AM Tuesday, that'll be fine."

"Ok, Tuesday it is. And Ronald, I'll handle this one personally."

"Thank you Mr. Graves, I appreciate that." Ronald said as he returned the handset to its cradle.

"Who was that?" Bonnie asked.

"Wha? I didn't hear you come in Bonnie." Ronald said as she mentally searched for a way to tell Bonnie the nature of the call, "It was no one."

"So you set up an appointment with a no one?"

"Ok so it's someone. Mr. Graves."

"And why is he important?"

"He's important because," Ronald sighed, "Because he's going to asses my diner here and tell me how much I can get for it when I close it down to pay off my debts."

Bonnie stood there for a moment as what Ronald had just said sank in. Ronald was closing the diner. After all the hard work they had done, all the hard work she had done in straightening out his finances. Ronald had lied to her. He wasn't letting her work here as repayment to him, he was treating her as a charity case.

"Ronald Stoppable, how dare you do that!" Bonnie screamed at the man.

"What are you upset about?" Ronald asked? "You've seen it your self that I'm losing money, better to get out now while I still have some money."

Bonnie couldn't believe what she was hearing. "Ronald, you asked me to work for you, to be your accountant and to help straighten things out for you. Well I did that." Bonnie said firmly as she pushed her way past the man and grabbed a sheet of paper off the desk. "And this is what I came up with. See it?" Bonnie said as she held up the paper that had all of her calculations on it showing how Ronald's diner could become profitable.

However, before Ronald's eyes could focus on the document to make out any of the numbers on it Bonnie crumbled up the paper and tossed it to the ground. "Well forget about it then if you're going to go ahead and close this place down." With that Bonnie stormed her way past Ronald.

"Stop right there Bonnie!" Ronald almost shouted as he grabbed a hold of Bonnie's arm.

"No I will not!" Bonnie snapped back as she attempted to shake off Ronald's hand, "If you can just up and quite then so can I."

"I don't want you to quite."

"Then why the hell didn't you tell me you were going go close down the diner? You knew I didn't want to be treated like a charity case but that's what your doing any ways, keeping me on just till you close the place down. The why have me try to straighten things out for you?"

"Bonnie I need that stuff done anyways."

"No you didn't. Mr. Graves could have done that. That's what those people do."

"Bonnie please." Ronald pleaded, "You don't have to leave just because of that."

"Bull shit!" Bonnie was on the verge of tears now. "I trusted you Ronald. Trusted that you were treating me like a real person, an equal. But I guess not, all you saw was poor old Bonnie who needed a hand out. Maybe you thought I would share your bed with you since you shared your roof with me, well forget it." With that Bonnie broke loose of Ronald's grip and proceeded in to the dinning room filled with customers.

"Bonnie wait. You know that's not what I thought."

"Good bye Ronald. Thank you for letting me stay with you, but I need to leave now before something happens that I will regret." With that Bonnie grabbed the umbrella that she and Ronald had shared just that morning and dashed out of the diner.

Ronald stood there for a moment and watch as Bonnie disappeared in to the rain that had been falling on Lowerton for the past several hours. He was torn as to whether to go after her or not, to find her and confront her about her misperceptions of his actions. But then Ronald remember the last time he had been confrontational with someone it had cost him Kim. Ignoring the pointed whispers and comments from customers about a "lovers quarrel" Ronald stepped back in to his kitchen to continue to make meals.


	6. Chapter 6

KP: Ron's Dinner

Chapter 6

I.

Bonnie was cold, hungry, and tired, but at least she wasn't wet. Thank goodness for small favors she thought as she continued to trudge through the streets of Lowerton. The weather man had been right and the cold rain he had predicted to last all day and through the night was continuing to soak the city. Despite being dry and having an umbrella Bonnie knew that she still needed to find a warm place to stay the night so she could think about what she wanted to do next. After storming out of the diner Bonnie had walked around for hours as her mind went over and over what had happened. She had thought that maybe she had found a friend, granted in a most unlikely place, but a friend none the less that seemed to care about her. At least that's what she thought based on the way Ronald had acted like a gentleman around her, being someone she could lean on for support, and when he had purchased those new and badly needed (if not completely stylish) clothes for her. Bonnie shuddered slightly at the thought that she was leaving behind her first new clothing she had received in months. But there was no way she was going to go back to Ronald's place and ask, or worse yet, to beg for them. What was done was done and she was going to have to try to make it on her own again.

Walking a few more wet blocks in the growing darkness of the coming evening, Bonnie found herself in front of a small homeless shelter. She had stayed at this shelter a time or two in the paste and knew the accommodations were pretty Spartan, a cot and a wool blanket, and receiving a meal there was pretty hit or miss. But they didn't ask too many questions as to why you were there and it was a safe place to spend the night. A small part of Bonnie's mind acknowledged that she would miss sleeping in Ronald's nice warm bed as she approached the receptionist who served as gate keeper for the facility.

"Hi, I need a place to stay for the night."

Putting down her magazine, the older woman looked at Bonnie with a stern gaze as if she was trying to determine if the brunette was suitable to let in to the place or if Bonnie was just so much riff raff that was to be avoided. Bonnie figured she must have passed the test when the woman's gaze softened and a small smile came to her lightly wrinkled face. "Certainly dear. You're in luck, we have one spot left. I guess the rain's driving people to seek shelter tonight."

"Yeah I would imagine so." Bonnie replied.

"Well follow me dear and we'll get you set up for the night." Stepping out from behind her desk, the woman turned a dead bolt and opened a door to allow Bonnie to enter the shelter. "By the way my name is Margret, have you had anything to eat today?"

"I had breakfast this morning, but that was it."

"Oh, well we have a couple of snack size bags of trail mix and pretzels left, it's not much but better than nothing."

"I'm not picky, I'm glad for anything I can get." Bonnie answered.

After being shown to her cot and handed a wool blanket and bag of trail mix and pretzels, Bonnie began to settle in for the night. Staring at the two snack bags in her hands she contemplated whether to eat one now or to save it for later. Since she had not eaten anything since breakfast Bonnie was pretty hungry by now, but she also knew that she didn't know when or from where her next meal might come. Deciding to step outside for some fresh air as she attempted to decide what to do next with her life; Bonnie stuffed the small bags of food in to her pockets, after all in a place like this things like food often had a habit of disappearing if left unattended, grabbed her umbrella and made her way to the front door.

"Margret I would like to step out for a minute for some fresh air." Bonnie informed the kindly older woman serving as the shelters gate keeper.

"Ok, but be careful around that guy out there," Margret said as she pointed to a man who was leaning against the wall of the building. "His name is Tommy and he likes to hang out here and try to pick up girls. I guess he figures if they're desperate then their easier to pick up. We've tried to chase him off several times but legally there really isn't anything we can do as long as he doesn't bother anyone."

"Thanks for the warning, I'll be careful." Bonnie promised.

Walking through the front door Bonnie was hit first by the cool evening air and secondly by the smell of something else, smoke. Specifically cigarette smoke. The young man named Tommy was leaning against the building as he proceeded to take another drag before exhaling the smoke through his nostrils. Usually Bonnie wasn't much of a smoker, but after her blow out with Ronald today and being back on the streets, she knew that a cigarette was just what she needed to help calm her nerves and to help suppress her appetite so she wouldn't eat all of her food tonight. Bonnie was just glad it was a man she was going to bum a cigarette from and not a woman. Men were so much easier to manipulate. Standing up straight and taking a deep breath to make sure her chest jutted out just a little bit more, Bonnie walked up to Tommy and asked for a smoke.

"Sure, it's not everyday I get to smoke with a beautiful woman." The man answered as he handed a cigarette to Bonnie.

"Really? I don't believe that." Bonnie continued to banter. She just had to keep up the charade that she was interested in what he had to say until her cigarette was lit.

"It's true. Women come to me all the time, but their usually pretty ugly." Tommy explained as he lit the cigarette, "But you're hot. You could be a model or something."

"That's nice of you." Bonnie faked as she began to plan her escape from the creep before her ears picked up a new conversation.

"I'm sorry dear but we're full for the night."

The sound of the Margret's voice drew Bonnie's attention away from the cigarette creep and towards the person talking to Margret.

"Please I don't even need a bed or anything, just a dry warm place for me and my toddler tonight."

As if on cue the toddler then chose to speak up, "Momma, I'm hungry."

"I know dear." The young woman soothed before speaking to Margret again, "Please, you've got to be able to help me somehow."

"I'm sorry dear but we are full. I can't let you stay here overnight with out a cot for you to sleep in, that's state law. But I do have a bag of trail mix I can give you."

Sighing in defeat the young mother realized that this was about all she was going to be able to get and decided not to argue any further.

Glancing back towards Tommy Bonnie could see the creep starting to leer towards the young mother. Although he hadn't said a word Bonnie was able to read his thoughts and new exactly what he was thinking. She also had a bit of a flash back from a few years ago.

****

"Yes I see you are attractive, but I get a lot of those types of ladies in here daily, so my offer stands at one hundred dollars cash for a photo shoot of ten pictures."

Bonnie looked at the man sitting on the other side of the desk between them. Everything about him said sleaze, from his oily slick backed hair, to his open shirt with the gold chain, to his name, Sal. Everything about him made Bonnie want to get up and leave, everything except the one hundred dollars in cash he was willing to pay her.

Seeing her hesitation Sal decided to sweeten the deal a little. "Tell you what, your a sweet thing, maybe I can get you more, say an extra one hundred dollars, how does that sound?" Sal asked with a wink, "But it's strictly quid pro quo."

"What did you have in mind?" Bonnie asked even though she really didn't want the answer to the question.

"Tell you what, if you sign an exclusive contract with me to be your agent then I'll pay you an extra one hundred dollars in cash out of my own pocket. I'll even spring for dinner for us."

This caught Bonnie off guard, she had been expecting Sal to suggest something a bit more "unsavory", but not this. As Bonnie attempted to gather her thoughts she bought some time with a little banter. "That's very generous of you, I guess there are still gentlemen the world."

"To bad you're not looking at one of them."

The unexpected answer that had originated from behind Bonnie caused the brunette to turn around so she could see who was behind her. What she saw surprised her. The woman who had spoke up had a pale complexion, or at least pretty pale compared to what Bonnie used to have when she could afford to go the tanning saloons. Her hair was longer than Bonnie's, about shoulder length and in a far from fashionable bob cut. Her cloths, consisting of a baggy sweat shirt and sweat pants could not entirely hide the fact that the girl probably weighed twice what Bonnie weighed. In the former cheerleader's opinion to say the girl was a "plain Jane" would have been generous and was ready to dismiss her as just office help when Sal said something that nixed that idea.

"No body asked for you opinion Molly." Sal replied angrily.

"Well you didn't give her the chance."

"This is a simple business transaction between me and her, you're no invited."

"Simple business transaction. Ha, that's a good one, Sal." Molly said before she lowered her gaze down towards Bonnie, "Let me guess honey, you need to make some quick money and he promised to pay you in cash. Probably said he would double it if you signed an "exclusive" agreement for him to be your manager. I'll even bet he offered to buy you dinner."

"What we agreed to is none of your business." Sal retorted.

"Excuse me, but we didn't agree to anything." Bonnie said, "And what business is it of yours what we agree to?" Directing her last statement towards Molly.

"Really it's none of my business. But I remember being in your shoes once, just getting in to this biz and needing some quick money. Let me just tell you I can hook you up with some other people who not only will pay better but don't look like they just became the living embodiment of the definition of sleaze."

That last point Bonnie could not argue with at all. As for the rest of Molly's statement, well more money did sound good, the only trouble was that she needed some tonight. "Will these other people pay cash?" Bonnie asked.

"No. But if you need the money so you can find a place to stay tonight then you can crash at my place for a couple of days."

"Really, you would do that for me?" Bonnie asked surprised.

"Yep."

"If she walks away from me then I'll never send another photo shoot your way again." Sal threatened.

"Fine by me." Molly said non chalantly before returning her attention to Bonnie. "So what do you say? Would you rather trust someone like me, or him."

"Not that I don't trust you, but what's the catch? If you willing to let me stay with you because you're hoping that I'll sleep with you, well sorry I don't go that way."

"You are a cute thing," Molly chuckled, "but I'm not looking to sleep with you. I just want to make life as difficult as I can for ole Sal here." Then turning her attention fully towards Sal, Molly added, "Think of it as my little way of getting revenge."

*******

That had been the very first time that Bonnie had meet Molly. She hadn't thought about that moment in quite a while, but now it all came back to her in full detail, she even remember the cheap cologne that Sal had been wearing that day. It was then that Bonnie made up her mind that someone needed to stand up for that poor mother, just like Molly had stood up for her.

"Excuse me, maybe I can help." Bonnie spoke up as she approached the two women.

"What, you can help? How?" The mother asked.

"Yes dear how can you help? After all you're staying here too." Margret asked.

"Let her have my spot here tonight, she needs a place to stay more than I do."

"Are you sure about that young lady, once you give up your spot you can't get it back." Margret informed Bonnie.

"I'm sure. She has a small child to look after, I just have myself. I can find somewhere else to stay tonight. Please, let her have my spot."

"Well this is unusual, but if that's what you want then I can let this mother stay here."

"Oh thank you so much!" The young mother gushed, "I can't tell you how much I appreciate this."

"No problem, sometimes we take for granted what we do have." Bonnie replied sagely. She then proceeded to pull the bag of trail mix and pretzels from her pocket, "Here, this should help keep you two fed tonight."

"I can't take that from you. You've already given me your spot for the night." The mother said as she stared at the offered food.

"Don't worry about it," Bonnie said as she placed them in to the woman's hand, "I can get more for myself, but your child may not."

"If that's all settled then why don't you come along dear and we'll get you two settled for the night." Margret said as she opened the door to admit her new patrons for the night.

"Oh yes. And thank you Miss, thank you so much." The mother said as she waved goodbye before walking through the door.

Just before she followed the young mother through the door Margret stopped and whispered to Bonnie, "You're a good person Bonnie, please be careful around that creep." With that Margret walked in to the shelter and closed the door behind her. After the door had closed, Bonnie glanced around her and noticed that cigarette man was still there and appeared to be even more interested in her company now that she was "back on the streets". Suppressing a slight shudder Bonnie took on last draw on her cigarette before flicking it in to the road, opening her umbrella, and walking away from the shelter.

II.

Tommy was happy as he watched Bonnie walk away from both him and the shelter. The brunette had just given up her spot in the shelter and now after bumming a cigarette from him it was obvious that the girl didn't have two nickels to her name. Once she realized she was going to have to try and find a nice warm and dry place to sleep tonight, and that he could give her those things, well she would be an easy score. But that was the way it usually worked, and worked out for him, a down on her luck girl needing a warm place to stay for the night was always easy to pick up. Easy pickings.

As Bonnie continued to walk away Tommy followed her and soon caught up with the brunette.

"So lost your spot huh?"

"Yeah I did."

"That sucks."

"Yeah."

"Want another cigarette?" He offered.

"Nah. But maybe you can help me out."

"Why would I want to do that?" Tommy asked.

"Oh come on, a pretty girl like me, a good looking guy like you. I think you can figure it out." Bonnie flirted.

"Hmm, sounds promising. What did you have in mind?"

"Well I could use a nice warm, dry place to stay. Do you know where I can find one?"

"I sure do. My place is nice and dry and not to far away from here." Tommy said with a wolfish grin, quite happy with how easy it had been to pick up this girl.

"But I couldn't impose on you like that, we just met."

"Oh you wouldn't be imposing on me."

"Tell you what, let's get to know each other a little first." Bonnie said with a wink of her eye.

"What did you have in mind? Dinner? A movie?" Well maybe she was going to be a little harder than he thought. She had obviously played this game before.

"Not bad ideas. But not what I had in mind." Bonnie said as she indicated down the alleyway they had been walking past.

"I like the way you think." Tommy said with a leer as he and Bonnie walked in to it.

Stopping about half way down the alley way and under an awing, Bonnie closed her umbrella, turned, and put her back against the wall. Then with a seductive smile and a crock of her index finger she invited Tommy to come closer to her.

Walking up to the brunette Tommy placed a hand on one of Bonnie's breast's and slid the other down to her hip as he leaned in close to her.

"My, I guess what I've heard about you is true." Bonnie purred.

"And what's that?"

"That you're a bad boy."

"Yes I am a bad boy." Tommy said with a wolfish grin as he continued to paw at Bonnie, "You must like bad boys then."

"Nah, I just know I can trust you."

"How do you know you can trust me?" Tommy asked perplexed.

"Simple, you've already lived up to your rep." Bonnie said as she slammed her knee in to Tommy's crotch as hard as she could. His eyes tripling in size due to the sudden surprise Tommy removed his hands from Bonnie and fell to the ground in the fetal position and began crying like a little girl.

Bonnie simply stepped over the whimpering man as she opened her umbrella and stepped back out in to the street once more. Stopping for a moment as she contemplated which way to go Bonnie finally made a decision and began to retrace her earlier steps back to the diner.

III.

"Hey there Ronald. Are you feeling ok? You don't look so hot." George said as way of greeting as he stepped up to the cash register to pay for his dinner.

"Had a long night last night and I am sort of feeling run down." Ronald admitted.

"Where's your assistant, shouldn't she be helping you then?"

"She left." Ronald said flatly.

"She left? She didn't stay very long then."

"No. We had an argument last night and it sort of blew up again today." Ronald conceded.

"Ah I see. You miss her, or at least her help."

Ronald slightly nodded his head yes.

"Well I'm not one to tell others how to run their lives Ronald, but might I make a suggestion?" Hearing no objections George continued, "What ever your relationship with that young lady is, whether it be as friends, lovers, or just co-workers, if you are concerned about her and feel that things run better with her here then go find her. Talk to her, work out what ever it is that you two argued about. Just letting things fester isn't good for a relationship no matter what sort it is. The sooner you close up shop today the sooner you two can fix things up."

Ronald stood there for a moment as he digested what he just heard before the light bulb came on. "By George you're right."

"You'd be surprised at how often I hear that, but yes I usually am." The middle aged man chuckled.

"I do need to talk to Bonnie, she was right that I need to stop running from problems. We can be adults about things and work them out. Thanks for the advice George."

Ten minutes later Ronald had shut down and locked up his diner for the night and began his quest to find Bonnie. As he began to walk down the street looking for her Ronald pulled his thin jacket up around his neck as much as possible to try and keep the rain out. Mentally he cursed Bonnie for a moment for taking his only umbrella when she had stormed out of the diner that afternoon, but he then pushed that thought to the back of his mind. Mentally being mad at her wasn't going to fix anything, if he was mad at her he needed to confront her and say it face to face, otherwise they would never work things out, and he would lose another person he cared about.

IV.

Bonnie had been walking for while as she made her way back to Ronald's diner. She didn't know what she was going to say to him other than that she owed him an apology for the way she had acted. Yes Ronald had been treating her as a charity case, but all things said and done it could be a lot worse. Either that or some of the old Bonnie was still there and just wasn't happy with good enough. In that respect Bonnie decided that she should consider herself lucky, at least no matter how bad the situation was she still had the luxury to be at least a little bit choosy about what sort of charity she got, unlike that mother Bonnie had given up her spot in the shelter for, or how she had been when she meet Molly.

Tommy had been a slimy little weasel, but he was an amateur and someone Bonnie could handle, the mother with her toddler probably couldn't have. Bonnie suddenly stopped in her tracks as a sudden euphony had occurred to her. What she had done earlier, with helping out that mother by making sure Tommy wouldn't get his grubby hands on her at the expense of Bonnie's warm bed for the night, was something that had been done for her before. With a wave of regret Bonnie realized that some of the things her friend Molly had done in the past, while the former cheerleader had looked down on them at the time, had been done for her benefit by a truly good and caring friend. And Bonnie had treated her poorly for it and thrown it back in her face.

Resuming her journey Bonnie soon found herself standing in front of a darkened and locked up diner. Spying Ronald's car still sitting in its parking spot from the morning quickly removed the idea that Ronald had simply gone home and forgotten about Bonnie. But if his car was here than where had Ronald gone, especially in this weather.

"He's out looking for me." Bonnie said with a bit of sadness. Even after their blow out he was still looking there out for her. "I don't know what I did to deserve a friend like you Ronald, but as long as you're out looking for me I'll be out there looking for you too."

V.

Ronald was cold, hungry, tired, and wet. He wanted to go home, to have a hot shower and a hot meal, and to forget about today and just start over as if he had never met Bonnie. The only problem with that was he couldn't fully convince himself to do it. So instead here he stood waiting for the crosswalk light to change, in the pouring cold rain hoping that he could find one person out of the forty or so thousand that lived in Lowerton. The old lady at the shelter he had checked at had been less than fully helpful, all she had done was indicated a general direction that some one matching Bonnie's description had traveled.

As Ronald stood there trying to decide which way to look next, it took a moment before his brain registered that rain wasn't falling on him any more. Lifting his head to look around the young man soon realized that he was standing underneath an umbrella, and holding that umbrella was Bonnie.

"Hey." Bonnie said neutrally.

"Hey." Ronald replied equally neutrally

"Thought you could use a little shelter, you look soaked."

"Thanks, and yeah I am."

"Want to tell me why a nice guy like you is running around in the rain?"

"The cause is standing right next to me, she ran off with my umbrella this afternoon." Ronald said somewhat snidely.

"Fair enough, I did take your umbrella this afternoon." Bonnie conceded, "Still doesn't explain why you're out here in the cold rain instead of your warm, dry apartment."

"I thought about doing that. But then I thought about something you said to me, about me running away from things."

"You're not the only one who does that."

"No. But I've tried both running from things and confronting them. Neither one of them worked out well for me."

"No disrespect Ronald but I haven't seen you confront anything in the past. What did you mean?"

Ronald sighed as a flash of bad memories popped in to his head for a second. Squeezing his eyes shut to force the images from his mind's eye Ronald then continued.

"Bonnie, the last time I tried to stand up for myself it ended up costing me Kim."

Bonnie was surprised by this statement. She had always assumed that Kim would wear the pant's in their relationship, but to dump Ronald because he actually stood up for himself? Bonnie's already low estimation of Kim in her mind managed to sink lower by several notches.

"That's why I didn't come looking for you at first. And I'm sorry for that." Ronald continued, "I thought our friendship was beyond fixing."

"Ronald, you don't need to apologize for that. And please don't ever say that again."

"Say what?" Ronald asked perplexed.

"That our friendship is broken or over. I couldn't stand the thought of losing you, as a friend." Bonnie said adding the last part in a hurry. "I've lost too many already."

"Then as one friend to another, do you want to go home?"

"Yes. I think we could both use a hot meal and a good night's sleep."

As the crossing light turned the green the two friends began to make their way back to the diner to pick up Ronald's car, and along the way not only did they share the dryness of the umbrella but they also both shared hopes about their friendship.

TBC


	7. Chapter 7

Kim Possible: Ron's Dinner

Chapter 7

I.

"AAACCCHO!" Ronald sneezed quite violently.

"Bless you."

"Thanks." The kowtow young man responded with a weak smile as he fiddled with the lock to his apartment.

The dim light cast by the overhead light of the apartment complex made Ronald's skin look quite pale and unhealthy in Bonnie's opinion.

"Are you feeling ok, you don't look so good, and that's the third time you've sneezed like that since we got in your car back at the diner."

"I'm just tired and hunger. Like you are I bet." Ronald responded.

"Yeah, but at least I'm not soaked like you are, and you are looking rather pale."

"It was probably just because of the poor lighting here." Ronald said as he smiled towards Bonnie, "Thanks for worrying about me like you are. It's not something I would have ever expected from the "old" Bonnie. But I like this newer, friendlier Bonnie a lot more."

"Hey that's what friends are for, but don't go reminding me about the 'old Bonnie' to much or I might revert to form." Bonnie teased as she returning the smile even though she remained unconvinced by Ronald's attempt to reassure her about his health. Once they got inside the apartment Bonnie was able to take a better look at her friend in the light and she did not like what she saw. The dark circles under his eyes were more pronounced than before, and his face looked even paler than it had seemed earlier. But there was something else that was bothering her too, Ronald's speech. Since their reunion earlier that evening Bonnie had noticed that Ronald seemed a bit slow on the uptake. He took a bit longer than normal to respond and sometimes it sounded as though he was either mumbling or slurring his speech. At first she thought that maybe Ronald had been drinking, but she didn't smell any alcohol on his breath. However, after seeing the bags under his eyes and his pale skin Bonnie concluded that he was simply exhausted and need a bit of food and sleep to make him right.

"Ronald, go grab a shower to warm up." Bonnie instructed Ronald as he began to make his way towards the small kitchen, a bit of her old bossiness coming out. In the past Bonnie's bossiness had served former cheerleader well in getting her what ever it was she wanted, but now she was more than willing to use it to help someone else, something she would have considered an unthinkable concept just a few short years ago.

Stopping in his tracks Ronald stood there for a few seconds before turning to face Bonnie, "Yeah, that does sound like a good idea." Ronald finally responded, further reinforcing Bonnie's earlier observations.

"Of coarse it is, I thought of it after all." Bonnie teased, "By the time you're done I'll have some dinner warmed up for us to eat."

"Thanks Bonnie." Ronald smiled toward the brunette before disappearing in to the bathroom.

Once Ronald was gone Bonnie let out a sigh that nonverbally expressed her concern about Ronald. He looked not only quite tired and run down but even a bit pale and unhealthy, and she was sure the time he spent in the cold rain looking for her had not helped any. Hopefully a hot meal and a good night's sleep would be all the help he would need, but right now she needed something to help her head ache. Popping a couple of aspirin Bonnie began to dig around the small kitchette looking for something to make for dinner.

Fifteen minutes later Bonnie placed two plates of hot food on the table along with a small glass of brandy for each of them when she heard the sound of Ronald walking through the bedroom door wearing a bathrobe.

"Hope you feel better because dinner is ready and I'm not going to heat it up for you again if it gets cold Hef." Bonnie announced.

"Geez you're all heart." Ronald complained while completely missing Bonnie's joke as he plopped down in to one of the chairs at the table, "But it does smell good though."

"Thanks. Um Ronald, are you ok? You don't look so good."

Hearing no reply Bonnie become even more concerned as Ronald wasn't the type to just ignore another person.

"Ronald?" Bonnie repeated.

"Sorry," Ronald said around a mouthful of food, "I'm just really tired is all."

"Well next time swallow your food before answering, there is a lady here after all, and after dinner why don't you go and lie down and I'll take care of the dishes."

"No you made dinner, I'll clean up." Ronald countered.

"Ronald, I said I would clean up and I will. I don't need you to help me with everything, I can take care of myself." Bonnie said a bit more forcibly than she had intended. Taking a deep breath she was about to apologize when Ronald preempted her.

"They why were you living on the streets?"

Bonnie couldn't help but to fell hurt by the retort and a bit of anger that Ronald had stooped so low. But a part of her had to admit that it was sort of true. Swallowing both her pride and the apology that was on her tongue Bonnie decided it might be better if the two of them finished their dinner in silence. After the type of day she had just had to be in a warm safe place to sleep with a full belly and a saved friendship, the former cheerleader felt as though she had won the lottery, and she wasn't about to risk messing that up.

Washing down the last of her meal with a sip of Brandy, Bonnie wiped her mouth and stood up from her chair. She quickly grabbed both her dinner plate and Ronald's and took them to the kitchen sink to wash them. "See, that wasn't so bad letting me clean up now was it?"

However, the sound of silence greeted her.

"Ronald?" Bonnie asked in concern. Seeing that his head was slumped down she rush to his side, "Ronald, what's wrong? Speak to me."

"Don't feel good. Want to lie down." Ronald mumbled seemingly half asleep.

"Here, let's get you to the bed then." Bonnie suggested as she helped him to stand up and walked the seeming sleep walking man to his bed. Gently laying him down Bonnie placed a couple of pillows under his head and lifted his feet up and gently tucked him in to keep warm. Glad to see that he was at least getting some sleep Bonnie sat down at the edge of the bed and watched over her friend for several minutes, much like she had done for a drunk and passed out Molly on a few occasions. Convinced that Ronald was now sound asleep Bonnie returned to the kitchen to finish cleaning up from dinner.

II.

The next morning Bonnie pulled her self off of the couch she had slept on and rubbed the sleep from her eyes. Glancing at the clock on the wall Bonnie saw it was already eight in the morning, far later than she normally slept in, but after last night Bonnie decided that some extra sleep was something both she and Roland could use. She had stayed awake until almost midnight periodically checking in on Ronald. When ever you had a friend passed out cold there was little you could do except to be there for them incase something went wrong. Sadly Molly had to teach this truth of life lesson to Bonnie. Taking a moment to straighten up the couch that had been alternately serving as a bed for the apartment's two occupants for the past several days, Bonnie made her way towards Ronald's bedroom to check on him.

"Ronald, are you awake?" She asked after softly knocking on the door.

A mumbled reply and the sound of movement in the bed was all the response she got.

"Come on Ronald, its well in to the morning and time to get up." Bonnie pestered as she entered the room and turned on the light.

"Ugh, do I have to? I don't want to go to school today mom." Ronald complained as he quite sluggishly and reluctantly sat up in bed.

"I'm not your mother and yes if you want to get paid for work."

"Yeah, pay is good." Ronald muttered as he pushed him self off of the bed and began to stagger towards the bath room. However, Ronald never made it that far as he was soon slumped against the wall of the bed room.

"Ronald, are you ok?" Bonnie asked worriedly as she rushed to his side.

"I don't feel so good." Ronald replied as he slowly slid to a sitting position on the floor.

Kneeling down next to Ronald, Bonnie began to examine her friend. His skin looked quite pale and his eyes didn't seem to be able to focus entirely. But it was when Bonnie placed the back of her hand against his forehead that she became worried.

"Ronald you're burning up. We need to get you back in bed so you can rest."

"Can't rest, got to go to the diner. Got to work."

"No." Bonnie said firmly, "You are not going to the diner. You're sick and you need to get some rest." With out waiting for a further word of argument Bonnie placed one of Ronald's arms over her shoulders and helped, well Bonnie really did most of the work, him to stand up and guided him towards the bed. Helping her sick friend back in to bed Bonnie made sure that Ronald was tucked in nice and warmly.

"Now stay here and I'll get you some juice to drink." The brunette ordered.

"I have to go to the diner." Ronald protested as she began to remove the sheets.

"Ronald, stay in bed and rest." Bonnie ordered again, "If I have to I will sit on you."

"Bonnie I have to get up." Ronald complained as he began to lift himself to a sitting position.

"I warned you." Bonnie said as she pushed Ronald back down, covered him with the bed sheets, and then proceeded to sit on his chest.

"Bonnie," Ronald said weakly, "I need to get up, I have to go to the bathroom."

III.

After helping Ronald to the bathroom so he could take care of his business, Bonnie sat down with the blond man and convinced him to let her borrow his car so she could take care of some business her self. Locating the keys to Ronald's car had been the easy part, driving it in the rain had turned out to be a bit trickier. Not only had it been a few years since Bonnie had driven a car, but Ronald's car seemed to have picked up some of it's owner's personality and had several quirks of its own she had to learn and overcome. Fortunately she had licked most of them by the time she arrived at her first stop for the day, the diner. Unlocking the front door and flicking on a switch Bonnie made her way to the cash register and proceeded to pull out all of the money from it. As the brunette got ready to close the cash drawer she hesitated for a moment as she looked at the money in her hand. Ninety dollars was more than she needed but she had taken it any ways. _But I was going to use that money to buy some food and medicine for Ronald_ she told her self.

_Was that before or after you pocketed the extra?_ Another part of her said.

Bonnie had to admit that she was lying to herself. Pocketing the difference is something she would have done to survive when she was on her own, but now she wasn't on her own.

Putting back half of the money Bonnie closed the cash drawer and locked the register. Turning to leave Bonnie stopped for a moment before heading to the back of the diner to find some card board. With marker in hand Bonnie wrote a quick message and placed the sign in the front window so people walking by could read it.

Hopping back in to Ronald's car Bonnie headed to, and she shuddered at the thought of it, Smartymart for her second stop of the day.

IV.

Walking out of the store and towards Ronald's car, Bonnie was happy with how far she had managed to stretch the forty dollars she had borrowed from the diner. Opening the trunk of the car to put the shopping bag full of medicine and food for Ronald, Bonnie stopped for a second as she fished out the pack of cigarettes she had just purchased. As she tapped the pack in preparation to open it she felt as if someone had walked up behind her, turning around Bonnie saw that not only had someone walked up behind her but that she knew who that person was.

"Pay back's a bitch ain't it?" Tommy said as he slammed his fist in to Bonnie's stomach as hard as he could.

Feeling the air rush out of her lungs Bonnie fell to the ground, unable to either voice a protest or defend herself.

"Think about that next time you little whore." Tommy said as he picked up the pack of cigarettes that Bonnie had dropped and walked off.

After what seemed like a long minute Bonnie was finally able catch her breath to stand again. Weakly making her way to the driver's seat of the car the former cheerleader sat there for a moment as she collected her self. After several moments of reflecting on the events from the past few days, Bonnie decided that, although unplanned for, there was one more stop that she needed to make today. A stop she had been needing to make for a while but always found an excuse to put off.

V.

Bonnie's mind began to wonder as she drove down the streets of Lowerton. It wasn't that she was lost but rather that she was looking for a specific house, a house that had sat on the edge between Lowerton and Middleton. It was a place that she had not been to in over a year, but that she used to think of as home. Bonnie had never intended to stay more than a night or two there but some how that had turned in to two nights, then a week, then several months. As she continued to drive through the various subdivisions, many of which looked as though they had seen better days, Bonnie's mind began to wonder back to her stay at her friend Molly's place.

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"What did you mean this was your way of getting revenge?" Bonnie asked Molly as the two women walked out of Sal's office.

"Like I said, he probably offered to buy you dinner to help celebrate his signing you as his client."

Bonnie nodded her head.

"Same old line every time. He used that one on me when I was in your shoes once." Molly paused before continuing. "And it worked too." She sighed.

"So you got dinner out of it. It couldn't be that bad could it."

"The meal no, nor the drinks for that matter. But the roofie he slipped in was."

"Roofie? As in the date rape drug?"

"Yeah, he raped me."  
Bonnie didn't know which disturbed her more, that she nearly agreed to have dinner with someone who drugs women to rape them, or Molly's nonchalant attitude about her own rape.

*****

"Come on Molly wake it. It's not my fault you stayed up late drinking last night." Bonnie complained.

"Don't want to go, to hung over."

"Again not my fault." Bonnie retorted.

"Then you go to work. It's not like I need to after my photo shot yesterday."

"And what happens when that money runs out?"

"Go away Bonnie, your not my mother."

"Lucky for me, who would want a drunk for a daughter."

"Hmmph, and if I had ungrateful hypocritical bitch like you as a mother I wouldn't have minded when she threw me out."

*****

Bonnie was wet and she was pissed. Molly had bailed on her again and now she had to spend some of her hard earned money on a taxi to take her home after her shift at the club she worked at. As it was three in the morning the number of taxis in this part of town were pretty scarce, so she had to wait for one, again. Bonnie sighed in frustration at it all as she lit up a cigarette, but longed for the relaxation of a joint. Usually it wasn't too bad when ever she and Molly worked the same shift at the club, at least they could split the cab fair for their ride home.

Bonnie had always hated strip clubs as she considered them to be degrading to women, and yet here she was working at on. It had been the easiest and fastest way for her to get a decent paying job, decent, but not good. Some how Sal, the sleazy manager that Bonnie had walked away from, had managed to get revenge on both Molly and Bonnie by getting them black listed from most of the decent modeling agencies. This didn't bother Molly as much as it bothered Bonnie. Molly had been doing adult photo shots for years now and wasn't overly hurt by her need to work at a strip club, although the crowd she was now hanging out with was having a bad influence on the girl. But for Bonnie, with most of the reputable photo agencies considering her persona non grata, that left her either working with the more unsavory ones or doing the more unsavory adult photo shots.

Even though she had to work at a strip club Bonnie Rockwaller, former cheerleader and top of the food chain, was not about to lower her self down to being a stripper. Instead she found herself working as a waitress in the club. At first the club owner didn't want to hire Bonnie since she refused to be a dancer, but Bonnie's argument that she would work for half of what he paid the other girls finally won him over.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Parking across the street from Molly's house, Bonnie wondered just how to go about this little reunion. Their last argument had ended both their living arrangement and their friendship. Everyday that went by that she was unable to apologize to Molly tore a little more at Bonnie's heart. However, as Bonnie began to cross the street she noticed a sign in the front yard of the house. Walking closer Bonnie saw it was a for sale sign with the word foreclosure written across it in big letters. Before she could fully digest this fact the door of the house opened and out walked a young but professionally dressed woman.

"Hello. We're holding an open house if you would like to take a look around."

"The home isn't for sell by the owner?" Bonnie asked?

"No it's a bank repo. Apparently the owner stopped paying their mortgage several months back and the bank has been unable to get in contact with her." The real estate agent informed, "But don't worry about the place being trashed, even though it's a foreclosure the house is in good shape, especially for this neighborhood."

"Does any body know what happened to the owner or her stuff?" Bonnie asked.

"No, but from what I saw of the previous owner's belongings she must not have had very good hygiene or personal standards. They found lots of empty liquor containers and drugs when they cleaned this place out, infact they had to take all of the furniture to the dump it was so dirty. But like I said it's been cleaned up really nicely and is looking for a new owner who actually cares about the place."

"The old owner used to care too." Bonnie mumbled.

"What was that? I didn't quite hear you. If you like we can go inside and I can show the place.

"I said thank you but I'm not interested in looking at the place." With out a further word Bonnie pivoted and quickly made her way to Ronald's car. Away from one thing that represented her past, and towards something that represented her future.

VI.

Josh looked at the bag of food in the passenger seat of his car and hoped that it would suffice. His instructions had been simple enough, his wife wanted him to pick up something tasty for dinner. When ever that was her wish Josh would do one of two things, take her to a nice restaurant in Upperton, or get something for them from Ronald's diner. Unfortunately the diner was closed today and it was too late to get in to a nicer restaurant, so he had to improvise about dinner. He hoped that he had improvised enough.

"Hi honey I'm home." Josh announced as he walked through the door of the Mackey's apartment.

"Hi babe." Josh's wife called back, "Is that Bueno Nacho I smell?"

"Umm, yeah."

"Josh, I told you I wanted something tasty." She said sternly as she crossed her arms.

"I know dear, but it wasn't my fault, the diner was closed." Josh protested. He knew how his wife could be a stubborn at times and hoped that she would listen to reason. "There was this sign on the door saying the diner was closed due to illness."

"Closed due to illness? Ronald must really be sick if he closed the diner for the day."

"That's why I couldn't get you something tasty."

"You still could have done better than Bueno Nacho." Mrs. Mackey said as she walked in to the kitchen. "But if Ronald really is so sick that he had to close down the diner then he must not be feeling well at all. I doubt anyone else has been by to even bother checking up on him."

"So what do you intend to do then?"

"After dinner I'll make a nice large bowl of chicken and mushroom soup and take it over for him. I'm sure he would appreciate the company."

VII.

Bonnie sat on the couch in the living room of Ronald's apartment watching TV. After completing all of her errands for the day she had finally been able to keep Ronald awake long enough for him to eat some soup and to take some medicine. Even after sleeping most of the day Ronald appeared better, but still a bit groggy, which suited Bonnie just fine since he wasn't able to notice that Bonnie moved in such a way as to protect her abdomen which was still a bit sore from her encounter with Tommy earlier in the day. The sound of someone knocking on the door caused her to jump slightly as a visitor was the last thing she was expecting for the night.

At first she considered just ignoring in the person in hopes that they would go away. But a second round of knocking, followed by a familiar voice asking if Ronald was there, drew Bonnie out of her seat and towards the door.

"Ronald open up it's me…" The person on the outside of the door was saying.

Bonnie opened the door and was surprised at who she saw standing there, "Tara?!"

TBC

AN: Ah my dear and loyal fans, how many of you were surprised by Tara's appearance at the end? I know people have been wondering when people other than Bonnie and Ronald would show up in the story but I bet a few of you were thinking that Mrs. Mankey was Kim instead of Tara. This probably isn't the best chapter I have put out for this story, but I had a number of things I needed to set up here for future chapters. Now as for how much longer you will have to wait until we find out what happened between Ronald and Kim, well its closer than it was a few chapters ago. Yes I know I'm leaving you vague clues as to things instead of giving a straight answer, why you might ask? Maybe because I'm just an incorrigible tease.


	8. Chapter 8

Kim Possible: Ron's Dinner

AN: You can blame BlueLion for this, he asked if I had any intention of finishing this fic or if I was just going to let it linger. Guess he shamed me in to getting off of my lazy duff and working on this some more, so my loyal fans here is yet another chapter of my RonBon story. Enjoy.

Chapter 8

I.

"May I come in? I heard that Ronald was sick so I brought him some soup."

"Yes, you can come in. Ronald's here, he's just asleep in the bed room." Bonnie answered after seeing the look of confusion on Tara's face.

Nodding her head in semi understanding, Tara walked towards the kitchen and placed the soup on the table as she tried to collect her thoughts and organize her questions in to some sort of coherent order. Seeing Bonnie after all these years and then finding her staying at Ronald's apartment of all places had been quite surprise, almost as surprising as what happened next. Tara turned around and was about to ask the first of about two hundred questions that were running through her head when she suddenly found her self being embraced by a softly crying Bonnie.

"Bonnie, are you ok?" A confused and concerned Tara asked.

"I'm sorry Tara. I'm sorry for the way I treated you in the past. I didn't deserve a friend as good as you." Bonnie mumbled between soft sobs.

"It's, its ok Bonnie," a still confused Tara said as she wrapped her arms around Bonnie to return the embrace, "I know you where having a rough time of it in high school."

"Yeah, but I still should have treated you better. You kept my secrets and were there for me when others would have laughed at me. You actually cared about me when no one else did."

Tara gently pushed Bonnie back until the tear streaked face of the brunette stood arms length from the blonde's. Tara had never see Bonnie like this before, the Bonnie she knew had always been strong and confident, and had usually hidden her emotions. The Bonnie before her now was humble, meek, and has not hiding behind any sort of mask. Tara was about to ask Bonnie about her life, how she had come to the place in her life that she was now at when the sound of a large sneeze caught both girls off guard.

"Excuse me." Ronald said meekly with a soft smile as he stood in the door way to his bedroom, "But I thought I heard a familiar voice in here."

Bonnie, whose back was still toward Ronald, lifted her tear streaked face till her eyes were level with Tara's and for just a second Tara saw the conflict in Bonnie's eyes as the brunette attempted to decide whether or not to turn and face Ronald.

"Here Ronald, I brought you some soup." Tara said.

"And I'll serve you some, when you get back in to bed." Bonnie said firmly as she turned to face Ronald. The confidence in her voice was in direct contrast to the how vulnerable her tear streaked face made her appear. The fact that Bonnie was willing to show this side of herself to Ronald spoke volumes to Tara about how much Bonnie had changed, and how little Tara knew about this "new" Bonnie.

"I'll go back to bed if you promise to clean yourself up first." Ronald countered, "Then you two can catch up on things."

"You need to rest Ronald, I'll catch up with Bonnie later." Tara suggested.

"No! Don't leave, I haven't finished saying I'm sorry yet." Bonnie pleaded.

"Bonnie its ok; I forgive you."

"No, I need to finish. I can't let things go unfinished again."

Neither Ronald nor Tara knew what she was talking about but from the way Bonnie was becoming more and more agitated they decided it was probably best to let Bonnie say her piece.

II.

After serving up a steaming bowl of Tara's soup for Ronald, the three former cheerleaders retired to the bedroom. Making sure Ronald was seated comfortably, Tara sat on the foot of the bed that was opposite from Bonnie and settled in to hear her friend's tale.

First looking at Tara, and then Ronald, whose slight nod of encouragement she was happy to receive, Bonnie sat down to tell her story.

"You both know how my parents got a divorce in my junior year of high school and how ugly it got between them. My father basically turned his back on my mother and me when he left along with my sisters. At first this seemed like a good thing, there was peace at home with out my parents fighting anymore and with my nagging hypercritical sisters gone it was a lot quieter. But then I found out that my father had stolen all of the money that had been set aside in my college fund. My mom had to spend a lot of her own money on court costs and keeping a roof over our heads, so if any one was going to rebuild my college fund it was going to have to be me. During our senior year I started trying to work as a model, and it paid pretty decent, better than working at Bueno Nacho, when I could get a photo shoot. I spent a lot of time just sitting around waiting and waiting for someone to come and take a look at me, decide I was the right look, and say they wanted to use me in a photo shot."

"It sounds like you were off to a good start." Ronald offered, but Bonnie's cynical laugh removed that idea from his head.

"Like you Ronald I was pretty naïve when it came to the modeling business. I thought I would just walk in there with my good looks and they would all be tripping over themselves to sign me up as the next big model. I learned a few things that first week. One, there are a lot more beautiful women out there than I thought and a lot of them are really cut throat. The second was that you have to start at the bottom and work your way up, I started out doing a lot of photo shots for clothing apparel where you might just see my hand or arm or leg, but nothing that would stand out as Bonnie Rockwaller. To work my way up I had to invest more and more time at the talent agency getting any photo shot I could. That's why I dropped out of the cheer team that year; I just didn't have enough time for both."

"We really did miss you when you left Bonnie." Tara said as she placed her hand on to Bonnie's shoulder.

"Yeah, even Kim had to admit that we were better with you than with out." Ronald added.

"I know, she asked me several times to come back to the team. I hated the fact that I couldn't and I took it out on Kim. You saw some of the cat fights we had that year Ronald, it wasn't pretty but it did give me a chance to vent some of my frustration."

"That's ok Bonnie, I think if Kim knew your reasons she would have understood."

"I'm glad she would have, my mom never did."

"Huh?"

Bonnie sighed deeply and debated if she wanted to continue or not. However, a reassuring squeeze of her hand by Tara caused Bonnie to find the confidence to continue.

"After I had quite the cheer team I was able to spend more time at the talent agency looking for work. At first things didn't work out to well but then I was approached by a couple of men who said that I was just what they were looking for, a fresh young face for their magazine, all I had to do was pose in a bikini and they would pay me nicely. I figured a bikini photo shot wouldn't be to bad, it's not like people haven't seen me in a bikini before, but it was the last picture that went too far."

Ronald's look of confusion completely contrasted with Tara's shaking head as if she knew the rest of the story. After several minutes of silence he finally asked Bonnie to continue.

"The last picture was of me topless. Well not really topless, I covered my breasts with my arms, but I dangled my bikini top in one of my hands in as if I had just taken it off, I guess the playful way I winked said it all. I got paid pretty well, but then a month later that photo shot came back to haunt me. The pictures ended up in a gentleman's magazine that one of my father's co-workers read. He recognized me in it and showed it to my father who promptly showed it to my mom, which caused a huge fight between us. She was so worried about maintaining appearances amongst her social groups that she demanded that I stop modeling or else she would throw me out. I for one didn't want to end up working some crummy minimum wage job so I refused. After a few more heated exchanges she gave me an hour to pack my stuff and then she kicked me out."

"You should have seen her that night Ronald", Tara filled in, "It was the night we had that cold snap and Bonnie showed up on my doorstep broken hearted and with no where else to go."

"I remember that", Ronald said, "Bonnie didn't show up to school for like three days. Kim and Bonnie had one of their disagreements the day before so Kim felt as though she might have caused Bonnie's absence."

"No it wasn't my little fight with Kim," Bonnie chuckled. "I had bigger issues on my mind. Things like finding a place to stay and trying to finish school while working enough to pay for my new place. Since I was eighteen at that point I was able to find a relatively cheap apartment to live in, but it wiped out most of the money I had managed to save up. So the cycle started again, I needed to do more photo shots to get better modeling jobs that paid more so I could afford both my apartment and go to college. So I ended up letting my school work start to slide and I came close to not graduating."

"After being top of the food chain at Middleton High for so long I thought I would be sad when we finally graduated from there, but I was actually glad when we graduated, then I was able to focus even more on modeling." Bonnie sighed. "But I was still far from being humble." "Ronald, where did you go to college?" Bonnie asked as she changed conversational gears.

"I started at Middleton community college."

"I know." Bonnine acknowledged. "Because of my slip in grades and lack of money I wasn't able to get in to any of the schools I wanted, so I lowered my standards and applied to Middleton Community college."

"How come I never saw you there then?"

"Because the day I applied I saw you there. Like I said I was still far from humble and my pride wouldn't let me go there and let you see me, so I never went."

"After that I focused my energies to my modeling career and oh yeah, did I tell you my car got reposed during that time?" Bonnie then chuckled slightly, "If it weren't for bad luck I would have had no luck at all. So after losing my car I began to spend all day every day at the talent agency or seeking out free lance work."

"I continued to try and find work in the modeling through the modeling agencies, but the jobs were usually few and far between, and be the time the agency got their cut I was barely making enough to get by, so I decided to try and branch out a bit. That's when I applied for a photo shot of me in an adult magazine, which is when I first meet Molly."

At the mention of her former best friend's name Bonnie looked at her still best friend and cast a sad smile her way.

"After living with Molly for over a year she and I had a falling out over how to live one's life. She was turning more and more towards drugs and alcohol and was trying to enjoy the party lifestyle, the playboy lifestyle if you will. But that wasn't for me, I worked at the strip club because I had to, but no I didn't actually strip. I still had my self respect. Anyways after a while both Molly and I got black listed from most of the modeling agencies around here, probably due to Sal, so work and money began to get scarce. Molly and I had a big fight one night, she said we could get by if I would just get over my self and actually start stripping, I told her she was destroying her own life by hiding her shame in alcohol and drugs. We parted ways shortly there after and I had to fend for my self again. The money I had saved up didn't last as long as I had hoped and soon I was doing things to win the favors of guys to let me stay the night."

"Wow, I never realized how rough you had it." Tara said as she gently hugged Bonnie.

"Yeah I did have it rough for a while. Having to be with men that I wouldn't even have thought of as losers in high school and having to debase my self to make a living, it was rough. I hit bottom when eventually I did wind up pregnant and had to abort the fetus." Bonnie's last sentence was a bombshell that shocked both of her friends. "But then things looked up for me, I was desperate for a decent meal so I went to Ronald's diner to beg for a meal, and the rest as they say is history."

After several minutes of minutes of shock Tara finally leaned over and embraced Bonnie in a tight and tearful hug. "Bonnie, I'm so sorry to hear about how things worked out for you, but I'm glad that things are better for you now." Then after a moment's contemplation Tara added, "Ronald, why don't you give Kim a call? I'm sure she would love to hear that you're doing ok and to hear about Bonnie." Tara suggested, "I'm sure both Kim and …"

"No." Ronald said flatly as he cut Tara off.

"Ronald, I know she hurt you but you need to get over that."

"Look Tara I appreciate that you came over to check up on me, but I don't want to talk to Kim. If you want to let her know how I'm feeling then you can tell her."

"Even that you were sick and that you found a new friend?" Tara asked while nodding towards Bonnie.

"Tara, Ronald said he doesn't want to see Kim, leave it at that." Bonnie said before adding. "Besides, you know that Kim and I never got along in the past and I don't particularly feel like "catching up on old times" with her. So, just leave things as they are." Bonnie added.

Tara was slightly taken aback by Bonnie's seeming defense of Ronald's rebuffing of Kim. But considering everything that she had learned in the past couple of hours she figured that perhaps more things had changed than she realized. Letting out a yawn, Tara glanced at the clock and realized just how late in to the evening it had become.

"Bonnie, Ronald, I hate to leave but I have to go home and get some rest for work tomorrow."

"That's ok Tara," Ronald answered, "We should probably get some rest too."

"I'll be sure to come by and see you at the diner then. Bonnie, I'll even introduce you to my husband." Tara said with a wink.

"You're married?" Bonnie asked in excitement, "I guess I should have noticed your ring earlier, but we were kind of busy catching up. So who is your husband?"

"I'll introduce you to him when we come by the diner." Then to cut off Bonnie's emerging complaint Tara continued, "You were the girl full of mystery and stories tonight, let me have a secret or two ok."

III.

After seeing Tara out for the night, Ronald turned and spoke to Bonnie.

"I didn't realize just how rough you really had these past few years. Did you really have to get an abortion?"

"Yeah it was pretty rough. After my abortion I, I bleed for several days and took a while to heal up. That's why I was looking so thin and pale when I asked you for a hand out that night. And speaking of looking pale my friend, you aren't looking so healthy you're self right now. Let's get you back to bed."

"That sounds like a good idea." Ronald conceded, "Besides we need to go back to the diner, got to be ready for Tara and J…"

"J?" Bonnie probed, "Is that the name of Tara's husband?"

"I know nothing, nothing." Ronald said with a terrible German accent as he retreated back to his bedroom.

"Well tell me about you and Kim then."

"I'd rather not." Ronald said firmly.

"Come on Ronald, I thought we were friends, friends share things."

"Most things, yes. But this is something I don't want to talk about." Ronald said defiantly before closing the door to his bed room and cutting off any further conversation that night.

IV.

"Welcome home. I was starting to worry that you had left me for Ronald." Josh joked as his wife walked in to their bed room.

"What makes you think I would do that?"

"Well it's almost midnight, you were there for quite a while." Josh said as she sat up in bed and watched his wife undress.

"Ok so I was there a while, I didn't mean to be, it's just that you won't guess who I ran in to over there."

"Kim?"

"No not Kim. If any thing Ronald is still hurt by her actions." Tara said as she slid on a sheer night gown that stopped just before midthigh and clung to her in just the right places before sitting down next to Josh.

"Hmm, was it his little sister? What's her name…Hana?"

"No, it was Bonnie."

Josh just sat there and blinked his eyes as if the name meant nothing to him.

"Bonnie Rockwaller. She was on the cheerleading team too remember?"

"Oh yeah, I remember her now, she was the really snooty one wasn't she."

"Hey that's my friend you're talking about there," Tara mock warned, "But yes she was."

"Isn't she also the one that sort of fall of the face of the earth a while back?"

Tara nodded her head yes.

"So she's living with? Dating Ronald?" Josh asked.

"I'm not sure. I went to Ronald's place and the last person I expected to see there was Bonnie. Apparently Ronald found her living on the streets and is letting her stay with him. Oh by the way, since you brought home Bueno Nacho for dinner, you get to make it up to me by taking me to Ronald's diner for dinner.

TBC


	9. Chapter 9

Kim Possible: Ron's Dinner

Chapter 9

AN: Yet another chapter pushed out in just under three days, don't get used to this my loyal fans. Not my finest work, but again it just quickly bridges some stuff so I can get to the explanation about Ronald and Kim that everyone has been asking about. But if you ask nicely maybe I will endeavor to keep up the pace and will explain it sooner rather than later.

I.

"Ronald, time to wake up." Bonnie said as she slowly opened the door to his bedroom. "Ronald?"

Opening the door all the way, Bonnie was surprised to see Ronald's bed was empty.

"Ronald." She called again.

"Yes?" Ronald answered as he opened the door to the bathroom revealing him in just a towel wrapped around his waist. "What's up Bonnie?"

"Oh, I see you're already up and about. I was just making sure you were awake." Bonnie said with a slight blush as her gaze lingered slightly at Ronald.

"Yep, I'm feeling at least three times better than I did yesterday. I think rest and some of Tara's soup helped." But then Ronald turned his gaze towards Bonnie. "But how are you feeling?"

"I feel fine," Bonnie answered, "I wasn't the one that was sick."

"True, you tore through a lot of bad memories last night, more than I would have liked to have remembered. So how are you feeling after that?"

"I feel fine." Bonnie stone walled.

"Are you sure?"

"Yes. Now let me pass you so I can take a shower." Bonnie said angrily as she walked past Ronald and in to the bathroom.

Three quarters of an hour later, and after a fairly quite breakfast, Ronald and Bonnie piled in to his car for the commute to work.

"Sorry I upset you." Ronald apologized as they rode to the diner.

"Don't worry about it." Bonnie said flatly.

"Why shouldn't I? I'm your friend and I'm worried about you after what you told me of you past."

"Key word there, PAST." Bonnie said putting emphasis on the last word.

"Bonnie I…"

"Ronald I know what you're going to say, and I don't want to hear it ok?" Bonnie said as she cut off Ronald, "I did a lot of things I'm not proud of and don't want to think about, and I only mentioned them in front of two of my really close friends. But I don't want to keep brining them up ok."

However, as much as Bonnie wanted to simply forget the past, a lot of times the past has a nasty habit of rearing is ugly head when you don't want it to.

As they pulled up to the diner Bonnie was the first to notice the pictures that were posted on the door of the diner. They were all of her, and they were all naked poses, pictures she had done in a men's magazine photo shoot a year ago. Rushing to the door she quickly began to tear them down. Having pulled down all the one's in sight she stepped back from the door to look to see if she had missed any, that's when she caught Ronald staring at a picture he held in his hand.

"I didn't know you had a freckle there." He commented absently.

"Ronald, please." Bonnie pleaded as she reached for the picture. "That is a part of my life I'm not proud of. Please, let me throw those away."

"No." Ronald said much to Bonnie's surprise. "We're not going to throw them away. If they bother you that much then we'll burn them, that way no one else can get ahold of them." Ronald said as he crumbled the picture in his hand.

"Thank you Ronald." Bonnie said softly.

"Hey, no big. Just want to make sure my friend knows that I've got her back."

II.

Later that day Mr. Graves arrived to assess the value of Ronald's property.

"Hello Mr. Graves."

"Hello Ronald, nice to see you despite the circumstances." The adjuster said as he shook the young man's hand.

"Ahh yeah about that. Mr. Graves, I appreciate what you have done for me, but I'm afraid that I have changed my mind about selling the diner."

This caused the adjuster to arch an eyebrow in confusion.

"I'll let my new account go over the details with you."

A few hours later both Bonnie and Mr. Graves exited "Bonnie's" office.

"Well Ronald I must admit that I am surprised at the sudden turn around of your fortunes here."

"So your not to mad at me for changing my mind about selling off the diner then?"

"Only slightly, it means more paperwork to be done, but it will be good practice for the interns and junior adjusters in my office." Then turning to face Bonnie, Mr. Graves continued, "As for you Mrs…."

"Please just call me Bonnie."

"Bonnie, as for you, if some day you would like to pursue a career as an adjuster feel free to give my office a call." Mr. Graves said as handed Bonnie a business card. "You may not have the training, but you do have a fine business sense about you."

III.

Having busted her butt all day to help get the diner ready for the day's customers and then having to pitch Ronald's new business model, Bonnie was less than fully focused on the task of continuing to crunch numbers as she sat down at her desk. Feeling her head hurt she reached for the bottle of aspirin that had become her friend over the past few days. Picking it up she washed down a couple of pills from the bottle with a warm soda on her desk and hoped for no more distractions for the rest of the day.

About an hour later during the lunch time rush.

"Hi Ronald, is Bonnie around?" Tara asked as she and her other half walked in to the diner.

"Yep, she's in the back working on "her" ledger." Ronald said while adding air quotes to the her part of his statement. "Let me call her."

"Bonnie, Tara's here to see you." Ronald shouted to the back of the small diner.

After a few seconds Bonnie emerged from the broom closet that served as her office and was quite happy to see her friend again. And even more happy to learn just who her husband was.

"Josh Mankey is your husband? I would not have predicted this. I would have figured that Josh would have married someone like Kim since she didn't marry Ronald.

"Well it's not like Ronald didn't want to." Josh added.

"The more I hear about Kim the more I wonder why he wanted to."

The look that passed between Ronald and Tara said plenty, if only Bonnie had caught it.

IV.

"Ronald, I need to rest a moment." Bonnie said as she leaned against a chair in the diner. It was well after 9pm and the diner had been closed for over an hour, but even though the last of the customers had left there was still a lot that needed to be done to get the place ready for the next day. Especially now that Ronald planned on keeping the place. Not only that but between explaining Ronald's, ie really Bonnie's, new business plan to Mr. Graves and meeting both Tara and her husband it had been an emotionally draining day for Bonnie.

"That's ok Bonnie I feel the same way." Ronald said as he tossed a towel on the counter next to him, "We can finish up tomorrow."

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah, I've survived this long by just getting by, one more day won't hurt."

The ride home that evening was quite as the two were both not only tired physically but mentally as well. It was with a slight start that Bonnie realized that they had arrived at Ronald's apartment complex and that he had turned off the engine to the car.

"Home sweet home." Ronald said as they walked towards the one bedroom apartment.

Although Ronald didn't see it, behind him Bonnie nodded her head in agreement to the young man's sentiments.

Opening the apartment door, Ronald held it open for Bonnie before entering himself, then having closed the door to the apartment he turned and found himself suddenly in Bonnie's embrace.

"Ronald, I want to thank you for helping me out today, with both the pictures on the diner and with Tara and her husband."

"Sure no problem Bonnie." Ronald said.

"And Ronald."

"Yeah Bonnie."

"I want you to know that no matter what, even though Kim apparently didn't want to, I've got your back."

Hearing these words were enough to send Ronald over the edge. Ever since he had meet Bonnie at his diner he had been holding back any thoughts or hopes of a romantic relationship. After being hurt by the love of his life Kim, Ronald was merely happy to have a friend in Bonnie. But after her pronouncement he found himself wrapping his arms around the brunette in a tight embrace and a few tears.

After several minutes Bonnie started to pull away from Ronald.

"What's wrong?" They both asked at the same time.

"Nothing." They also both answer at the same time.

"Nice try Stoppable, but you were all misty eyed there for a moment." Bonnie pointed out.

"Maybe because it's been a while since I've had a beautiful woman in my arms." Ronald countered, "Besides you're the one who was pulling way."

Bonnie stiffened slightly at Ronald's comment before forcing herself to relax again.

"What was that about?" Ronald asked?

"Ronald, do you really mean what you said, but me being a beautiful woman?"

"Absolutely," Ronald said as he gently placed a hand on the side of Bonnie's face.

"You're not just saying that because you're on the rebound from Kim are you?" Bonnie asked.

A slight look of disgust crossed Ronald's face at Bonnie's questioning of his feelings. Seeing this Bonnie placed a hand on the side of Ronald's face and explained what she meant.

"Ronald, please don't take this question the wrong way, but it's been a while since I have wanted to be with a man because I wanted to not because I had to. I need to know if you really want to be with me or if I'm just some hook up after your break up with Kim."

Ronald sighed as he considered what Bonnie had said and took a moment to collect his thoughts before answering. "No Bonnie, you're not just the rebound girl from Kim. She is out of my life forever, and I meant what I said about holding a beautiful woman in my arms."

For the first time since Bonnie had been staying at Ronald's place, no one slept on the couch that night.

TBC


	10. Chapter 10

Kim Possible: Ron's Dinner

Chapter 10

AN: Yes it's short but it's a chapter, and I promise that I will close this story out and not let it just linger. Also, I promise that in the next chapter I will explain what happened between Ronald and Kim.

I.

Slowly opening her eyes as she awoke, Bonnie felt both warm, due to having slept in her clothes, and protected by the arms that were wrapped around her. She also couldn't help but to smile as she recalled the previous night. Not only had she and Ronald crossed a new threshold in their relationship but they had both admitted that they felt the other person was becoming important in their lives and that they might like to be more than just friends. With the smallest of contented sighs Bonnie once again replayed the previous night's events in her mind.

Retiring to the bedroom Ronald proceeded to remove his shoes and shirt before noticing that Bonnie seemed to be hesitating as if she was nervous about something.

"Ronald, I think I'll sleep on the couch tonight." Bonnie said nervously.

"Why? What's wrong Bonnie?"

"I'm, I'm not quite comfortable with undressing in front of you Ronald." Bonnie said sounding defeated. "I'm sorry I, I just don't feel comfortable enough to do that yet."

"That's ok Bonnie, I understand." Ronald said as he put his shirt back on. "Tell you what, the bed is a lot more comfortable place to sleep; why don't you sleep in here tonight and I'll take the couch."

"No." Bonnie said as she shook her head. "You've been so kind to me, I can't just go and steal your bed. I'll take the couch tonight."

"We're a team Bonnie." Ronald said as he walked over to Bonnie and gently placed his hands on her shoulders, "We can share the bed, and if it makes you feel more comfortable we'll both sleep with our clothes on."

Looking in to Ronald's face, Bonnie could see he was being earnest and she had no reason not to take him at his word. Still she felt slightly uneasy about it.

"You promise? No funny business and we keep our clothes on?"

"Cross my heart and hope to die." Ronald said as he made a crossing motion over his heart.

"Well let's hope it doesn't come to that." Bonnie said before adding with a small smile, "I have enough emotional issues to deal with at the moment I don't need to add "waking up next to a dead person in bed" to them."

Seeing that Bonnie was now more comfortable about the prospect of sleeping in the same bed with Ronald the two prepared for a goodnights sleep.

Bonnie's recollection of the nights events were interrupted as she felt the person she was sharing a bed with begin to stir. Bonnie rolled over and smiled at him at her bed partner.

"Good morning she said happily."

"Good morning to you too."

"How are you feeling today?"

"Pretty good." Ronald said sheepishly

"Like you can take on the world?"

"Nah, I was never a megalomaniac, I'll settle for just being able to take on Lowerton." Then after a second or two of thought Ronald added, "But if you've got my back I may try to take on Middleton as well."

II.

After getting cleaned up and eating breakfast, the two unlikely friends trudged off to another day of work at Ronald's diner, and although she would not admit it out loud, Bonnie was beginning to feel as if it was her diner as well. She had been putting her heart and soul in to helping Ronald make the place a success, almost as if making the diner successful would help excise some of her old demons. And while she still had plenty of them on her own to deal with, Bonnie began to wonder if Ronald would ever share some of his demons, namely Kim Possible, with her.

A few hours of handling paperwork in the small closet that both Bonnie and Ronald did admit was for all intents and purposes Bonnie's office the former cheerleader was caught up enough that she was able to man the cash register to help handle the lunch time rush. And while Bonnie didn't know the rush was a bit bigger than normal, with Ronald's diner being closed intermittently over the past several days people were taking advantage of it being open. So busy was the diner that Bonnie didn't even notice a certain nemesis of hers had entered the diner. However, soon Bonnie was set upon by this nemesis, a certain strawberry blonde cheerleader with an out sized opinion of herself.

"Do you like my artwork?" The cheerleader asked as she held up a notebook that had LOSER sketched on it in big letters next to a picture of Bonnie working at the cash register. "I tried to capture as much of the essences of your pathetic existence as I could."

Suppressing a growl of disgust Bonnie was not about to let herself be baited in to an altercation by the self important, and in Bonnie's opinion self delusional girl.

"Or if you don't like my drawing then maybe you preferred some of my other work, surely you saw it. It was a photo collage. I posted it on the door yesterday so you would be sure to see it." She said with a smile.

At that point Bonnie knew, knew that it had been this pathetic, shallow excuse for a person that had peppered the front of the diner, Ronald's diner, with those naked pictures of her. Feeling her self restraint slipping away as a low growl began to build in her throat, Bonnie had unconsciously brought her hand up above her head and was about to slap the girl in to next week when Ronald grabbed her wrist and stopped her.

"Bonnie, don't."

Feeling that she had won, the cheerleader let the smile on her face began to grow a little bigger. However, the smile was quickly erased by what Ronald said next.

"She's not worth it, as either a person or a customer." Then turning to directly face the cheerleader Ronald added, "I want you out of my diner."

"What?"

"I said you're not welcome here, now leave." Ronald reiterated.

"You're going to throw me, a paying customer, out?"

"Neither you or your money are welcome here." Ronald added flatly.

"How dare you. You can't do that, I haven't done anything wrong."

Just then the teen girl felt a tap on her shoulder. Turning around the strawberry blonde was face to face with a police officer.

"Excuse me Ms., but do you see that sign on the wall there, it says the owner reserves the right to refuse service to anyone. I believe the owner has asked you politely to leave. If you don't then I could arrest you for trespassing and causing a disturbance. The choice is yours."

At this point she could only stand there her mouth moving but not making any words. Seeing that she was in a losing proposition the cheerleader quickly turned around and stormed out of the diner.

"Thanks for the help." Ronald said to the police officer.

"No problem. I know her type, uppity, think they are better than everyone else. I dealt with them in school all the time, it does her good to be taken down a peg or two."

"Don't be so hard on her, she may someday grow up and change for the better." Ronald said as he gently placed a hand on Bonnie's shoulder.

"Let's hope so." The young beat officer said with a smile as he left the diner with his lunch.

Feeling an on coming headache after having to deal with "uppity" customers all day, Bonnie retreated to the broom closet office that she had evicted Ronald from and swallowed a couple of aspirin before attempting to once again balance the books.

III.

That night back at their apartment, Ronald and Bonnie sat down to watch some mindless entertainment on TV namely the "Smoking Guns World Dumbest series". Or rather Ronald was happy being mindless, as some would argue was his preferred state. On the other hand Bonnie's mind was still returning to her questions from earlier in the day about Ronald's past.

"Ronald, can I ask you a question?" Bonnie asked as she sat next to her friend and confidant.

"Sure, what's on your mind Bonnie?"

"You asked about my family and I explained that I don't want to have anything to do with them. But I was wondering about your family. Do you stay in contact with them?" Seeing how Ronald had reacted in the past towards any questions about Kim Possible, Bonnie decided that this was probably a good, gentle way to approach that topic.

"Yes I do. I try to visit my sister every once in a while, and my folks do invite me over for Sabbath dinner once a month. In fact they should be asking me over again next week."

"Sabbath dinner? Oh that's right I forgot that you're Jewish."

After thinking about what Bonnie had just said Ronald understood what Bonnie was asking. "Oh, you're worried about having to meet my family."

This caught Bonnie slightly by surprise as it wasn't quite what she had meant.

"No that's not what I meant. You don't need to bring me with you for dinner at your family. I can fend for myself. I was just curious about your family is all."

"Huh? Why would you not want to come have dinner with us? You're more than welcome to eat dinner with my family."

"Ronald, what sort of relationship do we have?" Bonnie asked as she mentally shifted gears.

"Relationship?" Ronald asked perplexed. He had harbored some hopes that Bonnie would become his girlfriend someday, but now she was making it sound like she already was. "Wha, what do you mean by that? I didn't realize you thought we were dating. I mean if you want to that's fine I don't mind, but at least let me know. Oh no, do I have to get you one of those one week and then one month anniversary gifts? What are you supposed to get for those anniversaries? Is it silver, no that's…. "

After a moment of stammering and stuttering Ronald was stopped by the unexpected look that was on Bonnie's face. It was simply a look of bemusement.

"That's not what I meant you cheese head." Bonnie chuckled softly before turning serious.

"Ronald, look I know that we're co-workers, roommates, friends, even bedmates. But any other way of describing us is, well complicated. Maybe some day I would like to see where else we go relationship wise, but for now I think we should see how our friendship works out. And I don't want any one to have misconceptions about us."

"Bonnie, there are no misconceptions about us. You're my friend, a friend I would like to share my family dinner with."

Then as if the fates had been watching and waiting, Ronald's phone rang. Glad for the distraction Ronald quickly answered it.

"Hi mom I was just thinking about you….Yes I hadn't forgot about the family dinner….Tell Hana I miss her and look forward to seeing her….Next Saturday at six pm. I'll be there, oh and mom, do you mind if I bring a friend to dinner? I can? that's great, see you then."

Turning to face Bonnie, Ronald could see that she was not happy.

"There, it's done. Now you have to come to dinner with my family." The blond young man said happily.

"Ronald, I'm not happy with the way you forced me in to this. You know how I don't like to be forced in to doing things." Bonnie said sternly as she stood up. However, as she stood Bonnie had to suddenly bend over a little to ease the pain she felt in her abdomen.

"Bonnie are you ok?" Ronald asked worriedly.

"I'm just a little sore in the stomach area." Bonnie said as she stood up straight again, "See, no big deal, I just stood up a little to fast is all."

"You sure?" Ronald asked a little skeptically as he noticed that Bonnie's hands had reflexively gone to the same part of her that she had hurt when she fell on a box some days ago, "Isn't that the same area you hurt falling on a box in the diner?"

"Yeah it is," Bonnie conceded, "But it's not bothering me too much so you don't need to worry about it." Then letting out a big yawn Bonnie subtly hinted she wanted to drop the topic as she made her way towards the bed room. Figuring that trying to pursue the topic of Bonnie's injury would also mean pursuing the topic of Bonnie's "forced" invite to have dinner with Ronald's family, the towheaded young man decided it was probably better to let sleeping dogs lie.

IV.

The next day Ronald and Bonnie managed to largely avoid any arguments about the previous night's topics of discussion. The fact that the diner was even busier than it had been the night before kept the two so busy they had little chance to discuss any non diner related topics. Or at least they didn't until after most of the dinner crowd had finally left for the night. Ronald noticed Bonnie in the back of the diner as she was reaching for a new pack of napkins. However, as she stretched up to reach for the napkins she placed a hand over her stomach as she suddenly bent over in pain.

"Bonnie?" Ronald asked worriedly as he cornered her.

"I'm ok, I just over stretched is all. Guess I'm not in the same shape I used to be as a cheerleader." She said with a slight grin.

"You shape is fine by me. But it's your stomach I'm worried about. That's the second time I've seen you in pain now. Do you mind if I look at it?"

"Yes I mind." Bonnie said defensively. "I'm fine."

"Bonnie, I'm worried ok. Let me check." Ronald countered as he attempted to feel Bonnie's abdomen.

"Ronald no, don't, I'm, I'm fine." Bonnie stammered as she found her retreat blocked by a wall.

"It's ok Bonnie I just want to see if you're hurt." Ronald explained as he began to muscle his way towards Bonnie's stomach.

"Ronald no. Please don't. Please. I'm scared."

This caught Ronald by surprise. Lifting his eyes up from her abdomen and towards her eyes Ronald could see the barely restrained hear on Bonnie's face. Realizing what he had inadvertently done Ronald quickly backed way from the now trembling Bonnie.

"I'm sorry Bonnie. I. I didn't mean to scare you like that."

However Ronald's words were only heard by the Bonnie's back as she push past him and headed straight for her office.

Fearing that he might have done something stupid, Ronald retreated towards the comfort of the diner's kitchen.

Sitting in her office Bonnie wrapped her arms around her self as she tried to control her trembling. She didn't know what had come over her, she trusted Ronald. But the past several days had really been an emotional tour de force for Bonnie and had probably what had caused her to have a panic attack and fell threatened by her friend. She felt bad about how the situation was probably making Ronald feel, but right now Bonnie knew she was in no shape to try and talk to him and that she had to get herself under control again. Her emotional state was something Bonnie was going to have to deal with on her own. But at least for her sore abdomen she could take the last couple of aspirin in the bottle that she had been using all week.


	11. Chapter 11

Kim Possible: Ron's Dinner, Chapter 11 (rewrite)

AN: This is not a new chapter so much as a rewrite of chapter 11. When I originally posted chapter 11 I didn't feel as though it was my best work, and thankfully many of the reviews I received were honest enough to point out some of the more serious flaws, in terms of both grammar and plot, that I had made. So taking great pride in this fic I decided to rewrite this chapter and give the readers a better product. Hopefully this new version turned out much better than the last.

Also, I thought that maybe my work deserved a sound track so I figure the following tunes would go well with my fic. All of the songs below can be found on YouTube, so enjoy.

Bon Jovi: Runaway

Bon Jovi: Living on a Prayor

Romeo Void: Never Say Never

Heart: Alone

Heart: Never

Heart: Nothin' at All

Three Dog Night: In My Heart

Bonnie Taylor: Total Eclipse of the Heart

I.

An hour after her little disagreement with Ronald, Bonnie felt that she had finally managed to pull herself together enough to face him. With the slightest of chucks Bonnie realized that the "old" Bonnie never would have taken this long to pull herself together after an argument with some guy. But Ronald wasn't just some guy, he was caring, kind, sensitive, and most importantly he was Bonnie's friend. Nor would the "old" Bonnie be willing to offer the apology that she knew she owed him. Emerging from her office and towards the diner's small seating area Bonnie found the young man who was her boss, her friend, and confidant. Ronald appeared to be so caught up in his thoughts as he was cleaning the diners few tables that he didn't even notice Bonnie standing there for several minutes watching him. Not sure if he was ignoring her or if he had simply not seen her, Bonnie decided to speak first.

"Ronald, I'm sorry about freaking out on you earlier." Bonnie said softly as she announced her presence.

Ronald simply ignored her as he continued to push the rag in his hand around and around over and over again as if trying to remove some sort of imaginary stain.

"Ronald, I don't hold anything against you. I just had a panic attack ok." Seeing that her apology so far wasn't having the desired effect Bonnie decided to press on, "I've sort of been through a lot and I guess it all caught up with me." Bonnie continued.

Ronald still said nothing.

"Ronald, please talk to me. Tell me what's bothering you." Bonnie pleaded.

"I'm sorry to." Ronald said as he finally stopped cleaning and looked up at his friend. "I just wanted to help you and I ended up hurting you, and that hurt me too."

Bonnie frowned slightly at this, she figured Ronald might be feeling a little hurt by her apparent mistrust of him, but it still stung when he confirmed it.

"It's ok, I know you didn't mean it." Then pausing for a second Bonnie took a deep breath before continuing, "I trust you. You're the first man I've even considered liking or even caring about since high school. But I got scared back there for a moment. I, I just want you to know how I feel about you."

Ronald, while listening to Bonnie's explanation, had kept his head down for most of it. Finally looking up at the young woman that was both his friend and roommate Ronald was concerned with what he saw in her face. "Bonnie, are you okay? You're looking kind of pale."

"I am feeling a bit tired." Bonnie confessed as she placed her hand on the back of a chair to prop her self up. "Like I said, it's been a hectic past couple of days for me. I guess I'm just drained both physically and mentally."

"Why don't you sit down then," Ronald suggested, "I hope you're not coming down with my cold." Although Ronald would be the first to admit that he wasn't the smartest guy in the world, but somehow when it came to some one he cared about he found the ability to tap in to the other ninety five percent of his brain that he wasn't using. With that enhanced ability to focus came awareness of just how bad Bonnie really looked. Her face was very pale looking and her forehead was covered in perspiration, add in her shallow breathing and it all indicated something worse. He feared that Bonnie was suffering from something worse than coming down with a mere cold.

"Me too." Bonnie said as she began to turn the chair around to sit in it. About half way through the motion Bonnie stopped and fell to her knees.

"Bonnie!" Ronald shouted as he quickly rushed to her side and caught Bonnie before her head hit the floor.

"Ronald." Was all Bonnie could say as she slipped in to unconsciousness.

Ronald didn't know what was wrong with Bonnie, but he had two fears. The first was that she might be suffering from appendicitis. The second was that it had something to do when she fell off of the step stool several days ago. Gently holding her in his arms Ronald spent several minutes attempting to revive the unconscious girl. At first Bonnie slowly opened her eyes but then after giving Ronald a soft smile she closed them again.

"Bonnie, can you hear me? Are you alright?"

"So tired." Bonnie said in a whisper.

Laying the brunette down on to the floor Ronald lifted up her shirt to examine her abdominal area when he saw what looked like a large bruise area near where she had landed on the cardboard box from her fall. Turning his attention back towards Bonnie's face Ronald called her name but was only met by the fluttering of her eyes. Knowing that Bonnie was seriously not right and that she needed to be taken to a hospital, Ronald gingerly picked Bonnie up off the floor and carried her out to his car. Placing Bonnie in the passenger seat, Ronald, with out even bothering to lock up the diner, quickly assumed the drivers seat and headed for the first hospital he could think of, Middleton General Hospital.

II.

Out in the waiting room Ronald Stoppable looked at a nearby clock and saw it was almost two in the morning as he continued the pacing that he had been doing for the past several hours after he had brought Bonnie to the hospital. While the constant pacing didn't do anything to hurry things along or make Bonnie better, it at least helped Ronald to momentarily take his mind off of things. Although he was worried about Bonnie, Ronald knew that there really wasn't anything he could do and it was best to just let the doctors handle things for now. However, he had been waiting for quite some time now and the more he paced the more nervous, annoyed, and worried he was becoming. If the doctors didn't return soon Ronald was ready to simply go and find out about Bonnie himself. Ronald decided that he would wait ten more minutes before taking off on his own search. Turning back around to pace away those final ten minutes Ronald was lost in his own thoughts and suddenly came up short when he almost ran in to a doctor.

"Are you Ronald Stoppable?" A middle aged doctor asked, "I'm Doctor Anthony Antonuci, I operated on Ms. Rockwaller when you brought her in."

"Yes. How is Bonnie? Is she OK? What was wrong with her?" Ronald shot off a series of rapid fire questions.

"Easy there young man. I'm not at liberty to say much as you are not immediate family. However, since you are the one who brought her in I will tell you that she is much better now and is resting comfortably."

Ronald let out a sigh of relief at this news before a thought struck him. "Am I allowed to see her since I'm not immediate family?"

"We will have to ask Bonnie when she wakes up when the anesthesia wear off, which," The doctor paused for few seconds as he looked at his watch, "Should be in maybe thirty minutes, give or take."

"Thank you Doc." Ronald said with a smile.

"You're welcome." Dr. Antonuci replied. "Oh and young man, can you do me a favor? I know the Rockwallers personally so I contacted Bonnie's mother and she should be on her way right now see her daughter. I would appreciate it if you could relay Bonnie's condition to her just in case I'm not able to be here when she arrives."

"I'll do that Doc, but Bonnie doesn't get along to well with her mother."

"Yes, unfortunately I know that. But as a friend of the family she has a right to know about her daughter. Whether or not Bonnie wants to see her mother is up to Bonnie."

III.

Bonnie slowly opened her eyes to a sight she has not expecting to see. Instead of either the diner or Ronald's apartment Bonnie found herself laying in a hospital room with various wires and IVs attached to her. As Bonnie attempted to sit up she noticed a soft beeping noise emanating from one of the machines. Eventually the beeping was turned off when a nurse arrived to check on the now conscious patient.

"Good to see that you're awake. You have visitors outside if you would like to see them." The young nurse informed as she helped to prop up Bonnie by placing a couple of pillows behind her back.

_Visitors? She must mean Ronald_, Bonnie thought. "Can I see them now?"

"Sure if you feel up to it."

"Yes, I feel well enough for a visitor."

"I'll send them in then. But first the doctor that operated on you wants to look at you for a moment." With one final look at the readout on the electronic chart next to Bonnie's bed the nurse exited the room and was replaced a few moments later by Dr. Antonuci.

"Hi there Bonnie, glad to see that you're doing better already." The middle aged doctor said as he gently patted Bonnie's shoulder.

"Anthony? What are you doing in Lowerton?" Bonnie asked, "I thought you worked in Middleton." It had been years since she had seen the old family friend, since he visited Bonnie to congratulate her on graduating from high school.

"I do. You're at Middleton General hospital right now."

"But why would Ronald bring me all the way to here?"

"I don't know, but maybe you can ask him yourself. He's still waiting here to see you if you're feeling up to seeing him."

As if on cue Bonnie caught sight of the subject of their conversation smiling at her through the window in the hospital room door.

"Yes I want to see him." Bonnie said as she waved for Ronald to come in.

"Hey, you're awake." Ronald said enthusiastically as he approached Bonnie and gave her a gentle hug.

"Yes I am Captain Obvious." Bonnie teased gently as she returned the embrace before lying back against the pillows that propped her up. "And thanks for helping me out again."

"Hey no problem. Remember, I've got your back."

"Excuse me, Ronald was it, do you happen to know if Elizibeth has arrived yet?"

"Who?" Ronald asked.

"My mother." Bonnie answered glumly before glaring at her old friend. "Why did you do that? I don't want to talk to my mother." Bonnie asked harshly as she began to sit up in bed.

"Easy Bonnie, you don't want to hurt yourself." Ronald insisted as he came to Bonnie's side and placed a hand on her shoulder.

"The young man is right. And whether or not you want to talk to your mother I did invite her here to see you."

"What gave you that right?" Bonnie demanded.

"I'm her friend, and when I saw you here and I knew she would want to see you again."

Bonnie was about to protest further when the door opened and in walked Mrs. Elizibeth Wineglass, formerly Mrs. Elizibeth Rockwaller.

"Bonnie, is it really you?" Bonnie's mother asked as she cautiously approached her daughter as if afraid that she might disappear.

"Yes it's really me."

"Oh Bonnie, I was so worried about. You left and then I didn't hear from you for all those years." Elizibeth said as she embraced her daughter.

"Maybe I should leave." Ronald suggested.

"Ronald, stay." Bonnie said over her mother's shoulder before adding more softly, "Please."

"Bonnie dear I really would like to talk to you alone. Your friend can wait outside." Elizibeth said after finally releasing her daughter.

"No mother, I don't want to talk to you, especially alone. As for Ronald, he's more than just a friend, he's been more like family. In fact he's been more family to me than you or dad or my sisters have been for years."

"But he's not family," Elizibeth countered.

"No, but he is my boyfriend."

It took Ronald a couple of seconds to mentally recover from Bonnie's surprise announcement. He had hoped to hear her say those words someday, he just never expected to be like this. Recovering his senses, Ronald knew that his newly acknowledged girlfriend was going to need some emotional support right now. Stepping closer to Bonnie he soothingly placed a hand on top of hers.

"Doctor, what ever you have to tell me you can say in front of Ronald." Bonnie stated flatly.

"I see." Dr. Antonuci said feeling somewhat uncomfortable with being caught in a test of wills between Bonnie and Elizibeth. However, Bonnie was his patient and she had to right to decide who was allowed to hear her medical information and who didn't. "Well in a nutshell you were suffering from internal bleeding caused by an internal injury, the site of which was in your uterine area. We were able to close the wound with surgery but," Here Dr. Antonuci paused for a moment as he considered his words, "I'm afraid that there was a fair amount damage and scarring to the uterine wall. Right now we don't know how extensive the damage is but there is the very real possibility that it will make it difficult for you to bear children."

"Oh my poor baby! What has this monster done to you?" Elizibeth demanded as she glared at Ronald.

"Mother, leave him out of this! He didn't do anything to me but show me kindness and unconditional love. That's more than you, dad, or my sisters ever did." Bonnie shouted back.

"Bonnie I'm your mother I won't have you talk to me this way." Elizibeth snapped back.

"I don't want you as my mother!" Bonnie shouted as she sat up fully in bed and screamed at her mother.

"Please everyone, please calm down. Bonnie doesn't need this sort of stress right now." Dr. Antonuci pleaded.

Taken aback by her daughter's out burst Mrs. Wineglass could only stand there and stare at her daughter. Then as her mind attempted to make sense of what was happening it latched on to the first target it could.

"This is entirely your fault!" She yelled at Ronald while pointing an accusing finger at him, "You turned my daughter against me.

"I did no such thing." Ronald defended himself coolly as he remained next to Bonnie.

"Then why is she acting this way?"

"Because I do not want to have anything to do with you." Bonnie said tersely, "And don't you dare say one more negative thing about Ronald."

"Why? How do I know we can trust him? He's not family. I want him out of this room. Anthony, please call security and have this riff raff removed before he does anything else to…."

The rest of Elizibeth's sentence was replaced by the sound of the slap across her face that had been delivered by a now standing and rather irate Bonnie. Elizibeth just stood there in shock as her daughter continued to yell at her, "I warned you. I won't have you talking like that about Ronald," Bonnie paused to catch her breath before continuing, "Now I want you out of my room. I want you…I want you…out…now." Bonnie managed to finish before her eyes rolled up in to her head and she collapsed to the floor.

Ronald, Elizibeth, and Dr. Antonuci arrived at Bonnie's side at the same time.

"Her pulse is weak, minimal response from her pupils, skin is pale. She must still be bleeding on the inside." Doctor Antonuci stated as he examined his patient. "Young man I need to know everything that she has ingested over the past week, everything."

"Oh god, please don't tell me its drugs. Have you been supplying her with drugs?" Mrs. Wineglass demanded of Ronald.

Ignoring Elizibeth, Ronald explained that Bonnie had been taking a number of aspirin over the past week to deal with headaches and for pain she had after a fall she took.

"Aspirin, that's a blood thinning agent." Dr. Antonuci said, "There must still be enough in here system that she isn't clotting properly. Here help me get her back in to the bed. We're going to have to open her up again."

IV.

A couple of hours later.

"How is she? Can I see her now?" Elizibeth asked Anthony as the tired doctor walked in to the waiting room.

"She's asleep Elizibeth, and will probably remain that way for the next few hours. When she wakes up you can see her if she will permit it."

"Permit it? But I'm her mother."

"Elizibeth, I know I'm your friend, but your daughter is also my patient, and based on the way she reacted earlier it would, in my medical opinion, not be conducive to her health if you made another scene like you did earlier."

"I didn't cause a scene, she did when she slapped me. I, I still can't believe she slapped me. It has to be because of that guy who was in there with her."

Anthony sighed before answering again. Yes he was Elizibeth's friend, but he also had to admit that as far as being a mother went, she was far from being mother of the year material.

"Liz, that young man brought your daughter in here tonight and most likely saved her life. Bonnie was suffering from internal bleeding and eventually she probably would have bled to death. Also, you heard her yourself, she say's she considers him to be her boyfriend. I think it's pretty obvious that he is not a harmful effect on her."

"I, I can't believe your saying that. I thought we were friends Anthony, and now you're telling me that my own daughter has tossed me aside for some boy."

"Your words not mine. But maybe you should try to talk to that young man, what was his name, Ronald." But before Elizibeth could argue Anthony continued, "If you do want to reconcile with your daughter Liz, he may be the bridge to doing that." Then taking his friend's hands in to his own he continued, "Liz, I know that things were really rough between you and Bonnie, especially coming on the heels of your divorce. But I also know that it hurt you more than you ever admitted when you threw her out of your house."

"I had to. I, I couldn't control her or put up with her. My life was crazy then Tony, you know that. I had to work so hard to keep everything together. But Bonnie could be so stubborn at times."

Anthony smiled slightly at this, "I know Liz, she was that way when I knew here as a precocious five year old girl. But she has always been stubborn, and a fighter, and I hate to say it but you almost shouldn't have been surprised when she slapped you. That's just Bonnie being Bonnie."

"That's not the answer I wanted to hear."

"It might not be, but it's the truth and that's all I can tell you right now."

"Well I can tell you something then. Goodbye, I'm leaving. I need time to think Tony and I don't know if I can do that here." As Mrs. Wineglass slid her hands out from her friend's she added, "If Bonnie wants to contact me she knows where I live." Then as she left the waiting room Elizibeth walked passed a fitfully sleeping Ronald Stoppable and shot a dirty look at the young man who now apparently was closer to Bonnie than she was.

As Anthony watched Elizibeth leave he reflected on the fact that he had been friends with Elizibeth for a number of years and that he had also been friends with Bonnie ever since she was a small child. Over the years Anthony had disagreed with Elizibeth on any number of things, from the trivial to the major, but of all the things he had ever disagreed with her about, he had always felt that throwing Bonnie out of her home had been the one worst decision she had ever made. At the time he hadn't been able to help Bonnie through that rough patch in her life, although he was willing to. But now he did have a chance to help the young woman out. After he was sure that Elizibeth had left Dr. Antonuci woke the exhausted Ronald.

"Wha, where am I?" Ronald asked as he came around.

"You're still in Middleton General's waiting room young man."

"Bonnie? Is she ok?"

"Yes, we were able to stop the bleeding completely this time, in fact she should already be in her ICU room. The chairs in there are more comfortable, I can let you sleep in there if you would like."

V.

Bonnie slowly opened her eyes and this time found that the room she was in was dark, and empty of people. Opening her eyes fully Bonnie saw that she was once again laying on a bed with various wires and inter venous tubes attached to her and hooked up to various machines beside her. In the corner of the room closest to her bed was a chair, and in that chair sat a person currently slumbering. After a moment Bonnie finally recognized that Ronald was who was occupying the chair. As she began to sit up in bed some of the medical devices that were attached to her began to beep, not loudly, but it was enough to wake Ronald.

"Hey, you're awake." He said groggily.

"So are you, barely." She bantered back.

"You gave me quite a fright there when you passed out again." Ronald said as he pulled his chair closer to Bonnie's bed.

"What happened? I remember I was arguing with my mom and then it got hard for me to stand up, then things were going dark. And now it's just you in my room. Where did my mother go?"

"The doc says that you may have still bleeding internally and must have lost too much blood to let you stand up. They had to operate on you again to finally fix your injuries; either that or all of this is just the first step in to turning you in to the Bionic Bonnie."

Bonnie grinned at his lame joke.

"As for your mother, I guess she left." Ronald explained.

"Yeah, I guess my anger at my mom sort of over rode my common sense." Bonnie said a bid dejectedly. She had been angry with her mother, but it still saddened her that she had left.

"I'll say, at first I was pretty surprised that you were not only screaming at her that you got out of bed slapped her."

Bonnie nodded her head. "I guess I shouldn't have done that. But I just had so much hatred and bitterness about her and my family bottled up inside of me for so long that I couldn't help myself. I couldn't help it, it just burst out from inside of me."

Ronald, thinking about how he had felt towards the person that had stolen Kim from him, could sympathize with Bonnie losing her head. As a comforting gesture he placed his hand on top of Bonnie's. "Guess that mean's your out of the will then?" He joked.

Despite how badly she felt about how good it had felt to slap her mother, Bonnie couldn't help but to chuckle a little at Ronald's joke.

"That's what I like about you Ronald. You're never too serious about things and can bring a smile to my face no matter how miserable I feel."

"Glad I could help." Ronald said with a smile before turning serious, "Bonnie, did you mean what you said earlier?"

"Earlier? What do you mean earlier? Are you talking about what I said at the diner, then yes." Bonnie asked. She knew that she had told Ronald that she trusted him and that she cared about him. But beyond that her memory got a bit fuzzy.

"I know that." Ronald said softly. "But I'm worried about something else you said later on."

Bonnie racked her brain to try and remember what it was that she had said to Ronald. She dimly recalled talking to him after she had woken up in the hospital but she wasn't entirely sure what she had said. Closing her eyes in concentration Bonnie recalled a doctor had come in to the room, then her mother, then they started arguing, and she had said that Ronald was her boyfriend. Bonnie's eyes suddenly flew open at that last thought. Was that what Ronald was worried about? Was she moving to fast? Had she scared him by saying he was her boyfriend? Bonnie began to panic at the thought that she might be driving Ronald away from her. She wanted Ronald as a boyfriend, but even more than that she wanted Ronald in her life, even if that meant that she could only have him as a friend and not a lover. Out of fear she unconsciously tightened her grasp on Ronald's hand.

"Bonnie are you ok?" Ronald asked worriedly when he saw the look of fear on Bonnie's face. It was the same scared look that she had had back at the diner when he was tried to check her injury. "Bonnie?" Ronald asked again as he attempted to remove his hand from her grip.

"Ronald no. Don't leave me" Bonnie pleaded, "Please, please don't leave me. I can't stand the thought of losing you. Please tell me you won't leave." Tears were streaming down her face as she pleaded with the most important man in her life.

"Bonnie, I'm not going to leave you." Ronald said soothingly as he gently stroked her cheek. But the speed with which she had gone from ok to almost hysterical worried him greatly. "But something's wrong. Talk to me, tell me why are you so scared?"

"I'm afraid that now that I have found someone I care about, someone who cares about me, that I will lose them, again."

"Lose me? Bonnie I told you I won't leave you."

"But you said you were worried about something I said earlier. I remember that I told my mother that I consider you my boyfriend. If that scares you, if you don't want to be my boyfriend, I understand." Bonnie said dejectedly. As Bonnie said this she stared straight in to Ronald's eyes, trying to find any hint of his true feelings about her. "Please Ronald, let me know. I'll take back calling you my boyfriend, but please, please say that we're still friends. Please let me know that you still have my back."

Ronald's continued silence was really beginning to worry Bonnie now, but before she could say something Ronald beat her to it.

"Bonnie. I had no idea that was what was bothering you."

"But you said that what I said worried you."

Leaning in closer to Bonnie, Ronald explained what he was referring to was Bonnie's assertion that she didn't want Elizibeth as her mother.

"You mean you're not scared about being my boyfriend?" Bonnie asked with a hint of desperation in her voice.

"No Bonnie, I'm happy to be your boyfriend."

"You're not just saying that to make me feel better are you?"

The gentle lingering kiss that Ronald gave her was all the answer Bonnie would need.

VI.

Dr. Anne Possible was glad that her word day at the hospital was nearly over. It wasn't that she didn't enjoy her job as a doctor, on the contrary she loved it, but sometimes the little things like having to do endless amounts of paperwork were enough to make her consider giving up medicine. At least she had finished all of her pending paperwork for the week and tomorrow she would get to take a new crop of resident students around the hospital. Shutting off the computer in her office Anne locked the door behind her and began to make her way to the first floor and the parking lot. Deciding to take the stairs in order to get a little exercise and try to fight off those few extra pounds that had snuck up on her other wise mostly thin body over the past few years. While Mr. Dr. Possible didn't seem to mind them, she wanted to keep the number that joined her to as low a level as possible. Making her way down the stairs she exited through the doors that lead to the hospitals cafeteria and the rather questionable food that it served. Glancing inside Anne saw that while it was mostly empty, one person in particular stood out among the patrons. Sitting in one of the numerous chairs, his head dipping down over a cup of coffee as if he was fighting to stay awake, was someone that she had not seen in some time, and had begun to wonder if she ever would see him again. For all of his goofiness, and despite his falling out with Kim; Anne Possible would always consider him like a son.

"Ronald? What are you doing here?"

Looking up at the friendly voice, Ronald smiled as his mind was finally able to recognize the speaker through the fog of exhaustion that was clouding his mind.

"Oh hi Mrs. Dr. P. Yeah it's me Ronald."

"Are you okay Ronald? You do look a little pale and like your about to fall asleep sitting here, but not like you need to be the hospital, or eating its food for that matter."

Ronald slowly shook his head. "I'm not here for me. I was visiting my girlfriend in the ICU today and I decided to get some coffee before heading home." Ronald said through a yawn.

The last time Anne had spoken to Ronald he had been a sad, confused, broken hearted man. So the fact that he now had a girl friend was very welcome news, she just wished that she could have found out about it in a friendlier setting. "I'm happy to hear that you have a girlfriend, and if you don't mind me asking what's her name? I can abuse my power as a doctor and try to find out when they will release her."

"You would really do that? Even after what happened between me and Kim?" he asked.

"Yes Ronald I would. It's not your fault what happened between the two of you, and besides I still think of you as a son." Anne answered with a smile.

"That's badical." Ronald enthused. "Her name is Bonnie, Bonnie Rockwaller."

Now Anne Possible had not owned a Long Play vinyl record for almost two decades, but that night she could have sworn she heard a needle scratch across the vinyl when Ronald mentioned his girl friend's name.

VII.

Anne Possible did in deed abuse her authority as a doctor and after leaving Ronald in the hospital's main waiting area she began making a few inquirers. After calling in a couple of favors Anne learned that Bonnie would probably be moved from the ICU by the next day and possible even released from the hospital a couple of days after that. With this information in hand Anne returned to the waiting room to tell Ronald of the good news. However, as she sat down next to the young man Anne realized that he had fallen asleep, a some what difficult task considering the uncomfortably hard plastic chairs that the hospital used. Gently shaking Ronald until he was awake Anne could see just how exhausted he was by the incoherent questions he began to ask.

"Ronald Stoppable, you are in no condition to be driving right now. I'll give you a ride home tonight." Anne finally declared.

"But live in Lowerton." Ronald mumbled.

"I know dear, I'll give you a ride to your parents place. I'm sure both they and Hana would by more than willing to put you up for the night."

"Yeah, home good."

"Then it's settled, call you folks and let them know you're coming to spend the night." Anne said as she pulled out her cell phone.

"Thanks Mrs. Dr. P." Ronald said as she dialed the land line number for his parent's home. Mr. Stoppable had resisted getting a cell phone over the years as he thought it was just a fad. "Hmm, that's odd, no one is answering." Ronald announced after listening to the phone ring a dozen times.

After a few seconds of contemplation Anne made up here mind. "Well either way you're still in no condition to be driving all the way to Lowerton. You can crash at my place tonight."

"You would let me do that? You wouldn't feel akweird about that?"

"Ronald, like I said earlier, I consider you like a son, and it wasn't your fault what happened, so no I wouldn't consider it akweird to have you spend the night tonight."

"You rock mom." Ronald said as he gave Anne a big hug.

Thirty and a few moments later Anne and Ronald pulled in to the drive way in front of the Possible's house.

"Why don't you go on in Ronald and freshen up a bit while I start dinner"

"Yeah that does sound like a good idea." Ronald said as he walked to the front door, opened it, and found himself staring face to face with Kim's husband.

TBC

AN 2: Please R&R even if just to let me know if my rewrite was no better than the first.


	12. Chapter 12

KIM POSSIBLE: Ron's Dinner

Chapter 12

AN: Sorry for taking so long to get this chapter out, but my computer dead on me and I had to rewrite this chapter from scratch. You would think that by now I would learn to back things up, either that or I should go back to using my Tandy 1000 desktop, sure its 23 years old and runs on DOS 3.0 and uses Word Perfect 5.0 from 5 ¼ inch disks with only 512K memory each, but its only crashed on me once.

I.

The early model 2001 sedan made its way down the highway from Middleton General Hospital towards the suburbs of Middleton. Both of the car's passengers were busy staring out separate windows, Anne was staring out the front widow as drove, and Ronald lost in his own thoughts as he stared out the passenger side window. Ronald was so lost in his thoughts that it took Anne calling his name three time before she was able to get his attention.

"Oh sorry, I was sort of lost in my thoughts there." Ronald grinned sheepishly.

"That's ok Ronald, I understand. It does sound like you have a lot going on in your life at the moment."

Ronald just nodded his head in agreement before turning to look out the window again.

Anne let the young man stare out the window a moment before she spoke again, "Ronald, do you mind if I ask you a question?"

"Um sure."

"Back at the hospital you said that your girlfriend's name was Bonnie. The only Bonnie I know of is Bonnie Rockwaller who was on the cheer team with you and Kim and a general snooty pain in the butt."

"And you're asking me if she's the same Bonnie?"

Anne nodded her head.

"She is Bonnie Rockwaller who was on the cheerteam with Kim and I. But she's not the same snooty pain in the butt Bonnie."

A look of being unconvinced crossed Anne's face but went unnoticed by Ronald who had turned his attention back to looking out the window.

"You're worried about her aren't you?" Anne asked.

Ronald simply nodded his head.

"I'm sure Bonnie will be fine. She's receiving excellent care at the hospital." Anne reassured the young man. "Ronald, do you mind if I ask how you ran in to Bonnie and what she's like now? You mentioned that she's not the same pain in the butt girl from high school."

Ronald gave Anne a quizzical look as if he either didn't know why he was being asked that question, or if he was unsure how to answer it.

"You don't have to answer that if you don't want to, but I was curious how you found her. A few months ago Kim was trying to organize a get together for the old cheer squad. She was able to either get in contact with or find an address for everyone except for Bonnie, and it wasn't for lack of trying. That and for the life of me I can't ever imagine Bonnie being your girlfriend."

"Actually she found me." Ronald answered, "She appeared on the doorstep of my diner one day looking for a meal. Apparently she had been living on the streets then and was in need of a decent meal." Ronald then stopped and a look of contemplation crossed his face, "Umm, Anne, can I strike that from the record? That's a part of Bonnie's life that she's not proud of and probably wouldn't want too many people to know about."

Anne smiled softly before answering, "Don't worry Ronald, anything you say in here will be considered strictly doctor patient privilege."

"Oh, ok then. Well short version is that Bonnie had been living on the streets and came to my diner for a decent meal. I ended up taking her in and helping her to get back on her feet and she began helping me at the diner. I guess we just sort of grew on each other."

"Well I'm happy that she's making you happy, although I will admit that she's not the first person that would have come to mind if I knew you had a girl friend."

"That makes two of us." Ronald said with a slight grin that only lasted a few seconds as he turned to face out the window again.

"You're curious about Kim aren't you?"

Ronald nodded his head.

"She's fine, but a bit miffed that you won't talk to her."

Ronald snorted. "She'll get over it."

Anne suppressed a pained look that tried to cross her face. She still felt bad for Ronald and the way things had worked out between him and Kim. "Ronald, maybe you should try talking to Kim."

"Why? So she can hurt me again?" Ronald asked sarcastically as his head snapped back to facing Anne.

"Now that's not fair Ronald." Anne retorted a bit more harshly than she had intended. "She'll only hurt you if you let her, besides shouldn't your heart belong to Bonnie now? Because if you're still holding a flame for Kim in your heart then you had better be honest about that with Bonnie before you end up breaking her heart." Anne said in a stern motherly kind of way.

Ronald turned away from Anne as she considered what she had said. Yes he considered Bonnie his girlfriend and cared for her deeply, but a part of him still ached over losing Kim and the betrayal he felt from it. After several moments of quite contemplation it was Anne who broke the silence.

"Ronald, if you truly intend to be true to Bonnie then you need to come clean with any feelings that you still might have for Kim. You need to talk to Kim, let her know that you don't hate her…"

"I don't hate her." Ronald defended himself.

"I know you don't dear, but that's what Kim is starting to believe since you won't talk to her. And it's not just Kim you need to talk to, you need to try to talk to her husband."

Anne let slide the snort that she heard escape from Ronald before she continued. "And speaking of coming clean on things, have you told Bonnie about yourself?"

"She knows that Kim and I broke up."

"That's not what I meant. Have you told her about you and your…brother?" Anne said using the term that would probably be the least irritating to Ronald.

"No."

"Ronald, you're a grown adult, I can't tell you how to live your life. But as some one who cares for you like a son let me give you some motherly advice. If you think that you'll find happiness with Bonnie in your life then you need to be honest about yourself, and you have to move on with Kim. Part of that is being the better man and simply trying to be civil with both her and your brother. I know it's not easy and I know they hurt you a lot, but that's all part of being an adult." Anne then paused for a moment before continuing, "Ronald, just remember, this whole conversation was strictly doctor patient privilege, but if you do decide to mend your relationship with both Kim and Ron, I've got your back."

Ronald sat there in silence for several minutes as he digested everything Mrs. Dr. P had told him. Over the past few weeks Bonnie had had come to mean more to him than he then he ever thought possible. But on the other hand Kim had also hurt him more than he had ever thought possible, no pun intended. But now both women occupied completely different parts of his heart then they did even a year ago or could have imagined a mere five years ago. Maybe Anne was right and he did need to move on from the past and deal with the present inorder to make a better future. And that meant confronting the person everyone referred to as Ronald's brother, Ron Stoppable.

"You're right Mrs. Dr. P, I do need to be an adult about this. I'll try talking to Kim and Ron. Maybe I'll even be nice to him this time and not refer to him as that imposter clone."

"That's the spirit Ronald," Anne said as she pulled in to the drive way in front of the Possible's house. "And remember, I think of you like a son, you can call me mom."

"Sure thing mom."

After parking both Anne and Ronald exited the car and made their way towards the front door.

"Do you need any help in the kitchen tonight mom?"

"Thank you Ronald but your our guest tonight, you just sit back and relax."

Anne was about to say more but they were both surprised when the front door opened to reveal Kim's husband standing there.

II.

James Possible has a happy man despite the headlines in the newspaper. The Obama administration was raising taxes and again and they continued to look like rank armatures on the international stage when it came to dealing with the latest round of North Korean saber rattling, but despite all that he was a happy man. His latest project at work was proceeding on schedule and under budget, and his daughter and son in law had come over for dinner tonight. Even though they had been married for over a year James still derived a little fun in threatening his son in law with promises of one way trips on black hole probes.

Hearing the front door open James assumed that his lovely wife had returned home from work. With out even bothering to put down his newspaper James called out a cheerful greeting, "Hi honey, how was your day?"

"James we need to talk."

James didn't like the tone he heard in his wife's voice as he began to lower his newspaper. "Why? Did I do something wrong…."

The rest of James's sentence dead on his lips as he looked at his wife who was flanked on either side by identical looking Ron Stoppables.

"James, I wish you had told me that you invited Ron and Kim over for dinner tonight." Anne complained.

"Sorry honey, but then again how was I supposed to know that you would be bringing Ronald home for dinner."

"That's ok, I don't want to be a burden, I'll just go to my parent's house." Ronald said diplomatically.

"Call first so you don't arrive unannounced like you did here." Ron added sounding rather snarky.

"Ronald stay. Ron, that was uncalled for." Anne berated.

"Ron, Ronald is just as welcome in our house as you are. If Anne invited him over for dinner then he can stay." Then pausing for a second before James continued in his best parental authoritative voice, "And I trust that you two will behave your selves unlike last time." The last time the two Stoppables had been in the same room together it had almost resulted in another fist fight between the two young men.

"I will if he will. He's the one with aggression issues." Ron goaded as he pointed a thumb towards Ronald.

Before anyone could say anything more they were all interrupted by a small commotion that was the tweebs entering the room.

"Awesome both Ron's are here." Jim said.

"Yeah twins rule." Tim shouted.

"No way, they're not twins, their clones."

"They can't be clones, we never got to test them both. Maybe one's a synhtodrone."

"Or better yet one's a robot and the other is a…."

"Jim, Tim!" Anne shouted as she cut the two teens off and mentally added another martini to her count of how many drinks she would need to get through the night. "Where is your sister?"

"She's up stairs in the bathroom."

"Well can you two please go and get her. Let her know that we'll be having company for dinner tonight."

"Sure thing mom. Hicka bicka boo." Jim said.

"Hoosha." Tim replied as they made their way towards the stairs.

After the twins had left Anne then turned her attention to the other issue before her. "James, why don't you and Ron go and set the table. I need a moment to speak to Ronald." Anne suggested in a tone of voice that James knew was really more of an order.

"Come along Ron, looks like we'll need seven places at the table tonight." James said as he arose from his chair and placing a hand on Ron's shoulder and gently led the man towards the dinning room. He had a feeling that tonight was probably going to be at least a two martini dinner for him.

Anne turned to face Ronald as she began to apologize, "Ronald I'm sorry about that. I wasn't expecting Ron and Kim to be here tonight."

"That's ok, you didn't know. And even if you did I still think you would have invited me over for dinner, although it looks like Ron is still holding a grudge about our fight."

"Well to be fair you did throw the first punch," Anne said, "And I don't think he appreciated the fat lip you gave him." What Anne left unsaid was the black eye that Kim had received while trying to break up the fight. Ronald had been the one to accidently hit Kim in the eye and in some ways he felt as though that was what had finally driven Kim to Ron.

"Besides I did promise to try and be civil to both Kim and Ron, and if my girl friend can be a better person then so can I." Ronald said.

"What's this about my husband having a girlfriend? He isn't living a double life on me is he?" Kim asked as she entered the room and proceeded to give her mother a peck on the cheek before attempting to lock lips with her husband. However, as her lips were just inches away from making contact she received a rude surprise.

"Sorry Kim, but Ronald's lips belong to someone else now."

"Ronald? But how, when, what are you doing here?" Kim sputtered in surprise.

"Your mom invited me over for dinner." Ronald said with a devilish grin as he was enjoying Kim's discomfort.

"Mom, you were in on this too?"

"Inviting him over for dinner yes. The not giving you warning before you tried to kiss him, sorry Kim no conspiracy on that one. But you must admit that it was funny." Anne said as she tried, albeit not very successfully to stifle a laugh.

"Mom, Ronald, what is going on?" Kim demanded.

"Kim, I invited Ronald over for dinner and to stay the night so he wouldn't have to drive all the way back to Lowerton tonight." Anne said seriousness returning to her face.

"But that would mean that Ronald was at the hospital up here in Middleton. Why would Ronald come all the way up to Middleton, unless, Ronald, you're not sick or something are you?" Kim asked concerned. Despite the falling out that the two had faced Kim still cared for Ronald.

"That's a long story dear, maybe Ronald will feel like telling it during dinner tonight."

III.

Mrs. Dr. P was quick to lay down some ground rules as everyone assembled in the dinning room.

"Rule number one, there will be no name calling tonight. Everyone has a proper name and that will be used at this table. Is that understood?" Anne asked as she glanced at Kim and the twins.

"Yes." All three said in unison.

"Good. Rule number two, there will no shouting at this table." Anne then shot looks at both Ron and Ronald.

"Yes Anne." Ron answered.

"Yes mom." Ronald answered, earning him a dirty look from Ron.

"Good. Now rule number three, if any one wants dessert tonight then they must finish all of their dinner tonight, including all of their vegetables." At this Anne shout a glance at all five males seated around the table.

"Does that mean you and dad have to finish your martinis too?" Jim asked.

"I some how don't think that's going to be a problem tonight." James muttered to himself.

"Ronald, I still want to know why you were at the hospital today." Kim demanded as she passed the plate of meatloaf around.

"Kimmie cub, that's not a nice way of asking someone something." James reprimanded as he added more vegetables to his plate after Anne shot him a dirty look.

"Ronald, will you please tell me why you were at the hospital today?" Kim asked again.

"Hold on Kim, why are you so interested in finding out what Ronald was doing at the hospital today?" Ron asked.

"Ron, aren't you concerned about your brother?"

"Not really. He's here now so he must not be sick or anything. Besides he was probably trying to find some medical way to prove that he's not the one who's really a clone."

"Cool, were you being experimented on?" Tim asked.

"Maybe they made another clone of him." Jim added.

"Now boys, let's let Ronald have a chance to answer that question, if he feels like answering it that is." James said diplomatically.

"Well I'll tell you what I wasn't doing there." Ronald answered coolly, "I wasn't trying to prove which one of us is the clone. I'm pretty much beyond caring about that now."

"You are?" Ron asked in surprise.

"Yep. I'm Ronald, your Ron, that's all there is to it."

This statement caught most everyone at the table by surprise.

"So you don't care that I won Kim's heart?" Ron needled.

"Hey, it's not like my love was some trophy for you two to fight over." Kim said indigently.

"I have to agree, that was out of line Ron." Anne added.

"No more than the way he kept trying to convince the world that he was the real deal and I was just some copy?" Ron added snarkly.

"Well you are." Ronald shot back.

"I thought you said you didn't care who was the clone any more?"

"I don't."

"Ron, please stop being mean to Ronald. Can't you see he's trying to be civil towards you?" Kim said angrily towards her husband.

"Boys, you are both guests here tonight, but if you keep this up I will ask the both of you to leave me house." James warned.

"Sorry Mr. Dr. P," Ron apologized, "I'm just used to Ronald being more mean and spiteful around me, so this acting nicely to me has me a bit suspicious."

"Well how would you feel if everything you thought to be true about yourself turned out to not be true?" Ronald asked angrily.

"Ronald, remember what we talked about on the way home." Anne reminded.

"Oh yeah. Sorry about that mom."

"Why does he get to call you mom? You're not her son in law?" Ron asked.

"She said I could. What's the matter Ron don't like the competition?"

"No competition, after all I won the last time we competed." Ron said as he casually spun his wedding ring around his finger as if to prove the point.

"That was an accident!" Ronald shouted as he banged his hand on the table.

"Ronald, Ron! Enough!" James shouted. "I'm going to have to ask the two of you to stop insulting each other or I'll ask you to leave."

"Uh oh, Ron and Ronald are in trouble." Tim muttered to his brother.

"I know, twins who are in trouble, and for once it's not us."

Ronald sat there glaring at Ron for a moment before he calmed down. "Sorry Mr. Dr. P, you're right I'm a guest here tonight so I shouldn't be shouting." Then turning to Anne Ronald continued, "And I did make a promise to you in the car. Guess I'm not living up to it very much am I?"

Anne placed her half finished Martini on the table before answering, "That's ok Ronald, it's been a long hard couple of days for you."

"Mom, what do you mean by that?" Kim asked, "Ronald, what's going on? You're not in some sort of trouble are you?"

"No Kim I'm not in some kind of trouble."

"Then tell me why you were at the hospital…." Kim then stopped in mid sentence as a thought dawned on her, "Wait a second, earlier mom said something about you and girlfriend. Ronald, is that why you were at the hospital? Does it have something to do with your girlfriend?"

"Kim, as much as I like you as a friend I would rather not talk about that right now."

"Either way at least now that you have a girlfriend I shouldn't have to worry about you trying to steal Kim away from me." Ron added snidely.

Ronald glared at Ron, "Well you can have Kim, at least my girlfriend likes me for who I am." Ronald retorted.

"As somebody who tries to steal someone else's fiancé and when that doesn't work they try to bury their problems in a bottle and now just barely scraping by in Lowerton?"

"We all make mistakes in life. I guess mine was thinking that I would try to improve our relationship by being civil to you tonight." Ronald then turned towards Anne, "Thank you for giving me a ride here tonight along with advice you gave me, and for letting me stay for dinner, but it doesn't look like things are working out. If you'll excuse me I'll be heading over to my parents house now."

With that Ronald got up from the table and made his way to the front door. Anne got up to follow him as the sound of Ron and Kim arguing faded in to the back ground.

"Ronald," Anne said as she caught the young man at the door, "I just wanted to say that I'm sorry things turned out the way they did tonight. For what's it's worth I think you did a excellent job being more civil with Ron tonight, compared to how I have seen you two behave in the past."

Ronald gave a slightly goofy grin at that statement, "Yeah I guess anytime we don't end up taking a swing at each other then it counts as a good meeting."

"I know it was hard for you tonight with so much on your mind, but still you did good. And if it makes you feel any better I suspect that Kim and Ron are going to have a long discussion when they get home tonight. In fact I wouldn't be surprise if Ron ends up sleeping on the couch tonight."

"It would serve him right."

"Ronald, one more thing. Just remember that you are always welcome here, and someday I hope you bring Bonnie here as well, I would like to meet this newer and nicer version."

"Ok mom." Ronald said as he gave Anne a hug before stepping out the door.

IV.

Ronald took a deep breath to help settle his nerves before he knocked on the door in front of him. Even though he had walked for several blocks in order to sort through things in his mind he was still a bit bothered by how easily he had been to fall in to the familiar pattern of arguing and fighting with Ron. Yes Ron Stoppable was his brother, but that was only due to the fact that all the evidence, as much as Ronald hated to admit it, pointed to the fact that Ron was the original and that he, Ronald, was the clone.

Although his parents allowed him to work in when ever he wanted Ronald still felt it was better to knock first since he was dropping by unannounced. He didn't want any more surprises like he had at the Possible's house earlier that evening. After several seconds of waiting the door finally opened to reveal his mother, Barbara Stoppable, his sister Hana Stoppable, and one naked mole rate named Rufus sitting on Hana's shoulder.

"Hi." Ronald said a bit sheepishly.

"Ronald!" Hana screeched as she ran out and embraced her brother's leg while Rufus scampered up to Ronald's shoulder.

"Hi Hana, hi Rufus." Ronald greeted while tussling Hana's hair, "Hi mom, sorry I didn't call before coming over."

"That's ok dear. Anne called and said that you would be coming this way." Barbara explained as she stepped forward to hug her son. "I bet you must be hungry, why don't you come in and get something to eat." Barbara then turned and led the way towards the kitchen with a Hana still embracing his leg Ronald in tow.

"We just finished having some pie for desert, or rather Hana and I did, and your father is most likely having another piece as we speak."

"You can't prove that." Donald Stoppable called out as they caught site of his backside disappearing from the kitchen.

"Well I guess just Hana and I will have some extra pie with your son then." Barbara said just loud enough for her voice to carry through the kitchen. Not two seconds after having spoken her words then Donald walked back in to the kitchen carrying a plate of half eaten pie.

"See dear, after more than twenty six years I know your father." Barbara said with a smile, "Hana honey, let go of Ronald's leg so he can sit down and eat."

"No. Not till Ronald promises to stay here tonight." Hana said defiantly.

"It's ok Hana, I promise to stay here and visit with you tonight." Ronald said as he petted the young girls head.

"Yeah!" Hana squealed as let go of Ronald's leg and began doing cartwheels in the house.

"Hana, stop that." Barbara scowled.

"Sorry mommy, but I'm happy to see Ronald. I always get to see Ron and Kim, but not Ronald." Rufus had returned to his perch on Hana's shoulder and began nodding his head in agreement.

"Hana does have a point there Ronald." Donald added, "So what does bring you to Middleton anyways? Anne wouldn't tell us but said that you needed to talk to us about some things."

Ronald let out a slight sigh before answering, "Yeah, I do have a few things I want to talk to you guys about. But if you don't mind can we talk after I've had some dinner because I'm starved."

V.

Several helpings of chicken, salad, sweet potatoes, fresh apple pie, and a couple of glasses of wine later, Ronald began to recount, edited for Hana's ears, the events of the past few weeks of his life. After about an hour later Ronald came to the end of his tale.

"I'm glad to hear that you've finally decided to reconcile with both your brother and Kim." Barbara said with a big smile on her face, "And that you have found someone to make you happy."

"And even more importantly that you doing well at the diner now." Donald added as his wife rolled her eyes.

"But I thought I made you happy." Hana protested to her big brother.

"You do squirt. But Bonnie makes me happy, like how Kim used to make me happy."

"Oh." Hana said in understanding, "Does that mean that you two are going to get married?"

"Hana, that's enough questions for one night. It's well past your bed time as it is, now get up stairs and get ready for bed." Barbara interjected coming to Ronald's aid.

"Ahh mom. I'm not tired." Hana protested through a large yawn as Rufus mimicked the young girl.

"See that's what I thought. Now go give your brother a kiss goodnight and get up stairs young lady."

"Ok mommy." Hana said as she climbed out of her chair and proceeded to give Ronald a big hug and a kiss. "Good night Ronald, love you."

"Love you too Hana."

After the youngest Stoppable had been tucked in to bed by her mother, Barbara returned to the dinner table to find two of the three men in her life sharing a night cap.

"Donald, you're having a drink after eating three pieces of pie? You've absolutely ruined your diet."

"Actually he only had two and half pieces mom," Ronald defended, "And I suggested the drink."

"Well since you boys are enjoying a night cap I might as well enjoy one too."

"Don't worry Barbara, I won't be making a habit of this, this is that bottle of twenty one year old scotch I received for being actuary of the year at my company."

"So your saying that the only reason you won't do this more often is because your cheap and don't want to have to buy more booze?" Barbara teased.

"Well you always said that was one of the cute things you liked about me, I'm just a cheap Jew." Donald chuckled.

Ronald simply rolled his eyes at the comment, he never did understand the humor his parents found in making jokes about Jewish people being cheap.

"Oh Ronald honey don't give us that look." Barbara reprimanded softly.

"Sorry mom, but I just never understood what you and dad found so funny about making jokes about things that Jews have been persecuted for centuries."

"Ronald, that's one of the nice things about falling in love with someone and spending your life with them, you get to know them on a level that no one else does. Even if it's just sharing a joke that matches their quirky sense of humor." Donald said as he glanced lovingly to his wife before becoming serious as he addressed his son again. "All kidding aside Ronald, your mother and I are both very happy and relieved to see that you have found someone you care about. After Kim chose Ron over you, there were a few weeks that we were truly concerned for you and your well being. When you opened up your diner you did seem happier than we had seen you in while. But I can tell you this Ronald, clone or not, I've seen more happiness in my son's eyes tonight while he was talking about Bonnie than I've seen in quite a while now. I won't pretend that I'm not hopeful that you will be able to make your diner a success someday, but Ronald, even if you owned a million profitable diners that wouldn't be worth the effort of finding happiness both with Bonnie, and with Kim and Ron."

After a moment of contemplating his father's unexpectedly deep words Ronald noticed that his mother had placed her hand on top of his and was giving him a warm smile. "Ronald, you're more than welcome to stay here with us as long as Bonnie is in the hospital. But on one condition, if you don't bring her by for dinner with us on Saturday we will write you out of the will."

Ronald, not entirely sure if his mom was joking or not, simply agreed to her request, both to meet Bonnie, and for him to get a good night's sleep.


	13. Chapter 13

KIM POSSIBLE: Ron's Dinner

Chapter 13

I.

Ronald awoke to the sensation of his eye lids being pulled open and the sight of Hana filling his field of vision.

"Morning Ronald!" Hana announced happily as Rufus released his hold of Ronald's eyelids.

"Well morning Hana, you too Rufus." Ronald said as she slowly sat up in bed. The previous night his mother had gently threatened Ronald that she would disown him if he didn't stay to get a good night's sleep in the families' guest bed room.

"I wanted to tell you good morning before I go to school." Hana said proudly.

Go to school? Ronald wondered just how late had he slept? "What time is it?"

"It's almost nine in the morning, which means you had better get a move on young lady." Barbara Stoppable said from the door way, "Now finish telling your brother good bye."

"Ok. Bye Ronald, love you." Hana said as she gave Ronald a big hug.  
"Love you too Hana." Ronald said as she returned the hug and added a small kiss to the top of her head. "Guess that leaves just me and Rufus here today then."

"Uh uh." Rufus said shaking his head no.

"What? Rufus, you don't want to spend time with me?" Ronald asked in mild surprise.

"Rufus is coming with me to show and tell today." Hana said proudly.

"Huh huh, show and tell." Rufus said as he scrambled in to Hana's open back pack.

"Oh, well ok then, you two have fun at school today." Ronald said as he masked his disappointment. He had hoped that he could at least spend a few hours with his old friend Rufus before leaving his parents house to go see Bonnie and to return to his own home in Lowerton.

After Hana and Rufus left Ronald made his way down stairs for breakfast. In the dinning room he found his mom finishing packing up Hana's lunch when she saw her son enter the room. "Good morning Ronald, how did you sleep last night?"

"Pretty good mom, or at least until Hana and Rufus came to wake me up."

"Well don't be too cross with them, I told them they needed to wake you up before you slept the whole day away."

"And what's wrong with that?" Ronald asked in mock annoyance.

Barbara simply smiled as she closed the lid on Hana's lunch box, "I'm glad to see that some things about my boy haven't changed. Your father has already left for work and I need to go to the grocery store after dropping Hana off at school so you'll have the house to yourself for most of the day. There's food in the fridge so help your self to some breakfast." Barbara instructed as she herded Hana out the door. "Oh and Ronald one last thing, I know that you're going to visit Bonnie at the hospital today, but I hope that you find time to try and talk to Kim and Ron also. I know your not happy with them, but please, for your mother, at least try to patch things up with them. After all they are family."

Making his way to the kitchen in order to make some breakfast, Ronald began to think about what his mother had said about Kim and Ron. Opening the refrigerator door Ronald simply stared blankly at the food inside, while normally Ronald would have loved nothing better than to put his cooking skills to the test by seeing what sort of meal he could come up with based on the random ingredients in some one else's kitchen, today he simply did not feel in the mood to cook. Making himself a cup of coffee instead, he tried to sort though his thoughts about his encounter with Kim and Ron from last night.

Yes his mother was right about Kim and Ron being family, but that still didn't excuse Ron's actions. Trying to patch up his relationship with Kim and Ron had not been high on Ronald's to do list, and last night's tiff was a clear indication of just how hard of a project that was going to be. Besides which there was still a small part of his mind that was vocal in expressing its anger towards Kim and Ron and would be happy to never see or hear from them again. If Ronald was going to be to be honest with himself, and others, then he had to admit that fact.

But as long as Ronald was being honest with himself then he also had to admit that as much as it broke his heart to lose Kim as a lover to his "clone brother", and although seeing Ron and Kim together no longer tore him up as much as it used, Ronald had to admit that he missed having Kim as a friend. At the thought his former friendship with Kim, part of Ronald's brain began to recall Bonnie's story about her friend Molly. While Ronald didn't know all of the details about the girl, or what had happened to her or why she and Bonnie were no longer friends, it was easy to tell from the look on Bonnie's face that the former cheerleader greatly missed her former friend. Ronald knew, because it was an expression he sometime wore when he used to think about Kim.

Finishing his cup of Joe, Ronald decided that while it had perked him up, it still hadn't helped him to clear his mind enough to sort through his feelings about Ron and Kim. After a moment or two of contemplation Ronald decided that he would follow his mother's advice and would at least try to improve his relationship with both Kim and Ron. However, after Ron threw his efforts back in his face last night, Ronald felt that he was justified in letting Kim and or Ron extend the next olive branch. With that decision made Ronald felt that he could now focus on the task he was actually looking forward to, he would go and visit Bonnie at the hospital.

II.

Locking the door to his parent's house behind him, Ronald began the mile long walk to the nearest bus stop. Taking a deep breath Ronald could feel the first traces of fall in the air as cool air filled his lungs. Slowly letting out his deep breath Ronald had to admit that dinner with his folks, along with their talk and a good night's sleep had done much to restore his body and mind. But these things, along with the coffee, the shower, and now the cool fresh air of Middleton had not done nearly as much to help restore his soul, for a bit of it still ached at the loss of his best friend and former love, and worried about his current love.

The events from his encounter with Ron from the previous night still weighed heavily on his mind. Ronald was also still mad, and slightly hurt, at Ron for the way he had reacted towards Ronald's attempts at being civil last night. The more Ronald thought about things between him and Ron the less sure he was that he could, or even should, ever reconcile with the man. But despite these thoughts one counter argument kept appearing in his head telling him that anyone can change even though if it took time and effort, after all look at Bonnie. The thought of how hard Bonnie was struggling to be a better person and to let go of the past made Ronald feel slightly ashamed that he wasn't able to do that same.

Ronald was so engrossed in his own thoughts that he failed to notice the red sedan that had been following him for several blocks until the driver of said car honked her horn. Looking up at the sound Ronald was surprised to see Kim Stoppable looking right back at him from the window of her car.

"Hey there stranger can I give a ride some where?" Kim asked.

"Wouldn't your husband have something to say about that?" Ronald asked snidely.

"Ron isn't here, it's just me. Ronald I want to talk to you, and to apologize," Then almost as an after thought she added, "for last night."

"Not your fault KP. If anyone needs to apologize it needs to be Ron, not you."

"You're right Ronald, Ron does need to apologize to you. But I want to apologize as well."

"Ok then apologize."

Kim let out a small sigh. Apparently Ronald was not only upset with Ron but sadly with her as well. "I apologize for my husband's action's last night, he was rude and out of line." Then pausing to take a breath Kim continued, "And I was out of line too for not standing up for you more last night."

Ronald just stared at Kim as though he wasn't entirely convinced of her sincerity.

"Ronald, please, let me make it up to you. I know you tired hard to be civil last night toward Ron," Kim stopped as she left unsaid the results of Ronald's attempts.

"Is that all you're going to apologize for?"

"Ronald, that's in the past." Kim said sternly. "I won't apologize for that, and if you keep bringing that up then I won't apologize at all." As much as she wanted to make up with Ronald she didn't want him to keep bringing up the topic of her choosing Ron over him.

Ronald took a deep breath and stood there for a moment as he thought over what Kim had said, that maybe she was right and he did need to stop bringing up the past since that wasn't going to change the fact that he and Kim simply were not destined to be together as lovers. And letting go of the past meant embracing the future, hopefully a future with Bonnie in his life, and possibly even Kim as his friend. Ronald then thought back to that rainy night he and Bonnie had their blow out and she had walked out on him, their reunion in the rain that night, and their they're promise to each other to make their friendship work, no matter how hard it was. If he and Bonnie, with all of their personal baggage between them could do that, then surely he could do the same thing with Kim. A smile began to cross Ronald's face as this little euphony crossed his mind.

"Ok Kim, I'll accept your apology, but you have to give a little too, because there is only one way that I know you are sincere in making things up to me."

"Anything Ronald, you name it."

"Buy me a Naco."

Kim stared at the blond haired man as though he had an extra appendage protruding from his head, then wordless, although her action spoke volumes, she opened the car's passenger side door.

III.

The ride to Bueno Nacho had been mostly quite despite a few aborted attempts at making small talk by both Kim and Ronald. With both of them tip toeing around the major sticking points in their lives there just wasn't much for them to talk about. None the less Ronald took it as a good sign that Kim had come to apologize to him and that would make trying to fix their relationship easier. The trouble was he just didn't know how to articulate these thoughts with out falling back in to the same old recriminations of how she had broken his heart.

Kim on the other hand, although she had to hunt Ronald down in order to try to apologize to him, she took it as a good sign that he was at least willing to accept her apology. Even if his acceptance did have strings in the shape of a Naco attached to it. She was also guardedly hopeful that maybe she would finally be able to tell Ronald how much her decision to choose between Ron and Ronald had hurt her as well. Fortunately for both of them the trip was short and by the time they pulled in to the restaurants parking lot they saw that the early lunch crowd had not yet arrived. As Kim killed the engine she shot a quizzical look at Ronald.

"Of all the things in the world you could have asked for your wanted me to buy you a Naco?" Kim asked incredibly.

"Well you did say you would do anything to make it up to me. Besides, I haven't had breakfast yet." Ronald answered with a goofy smile.

Kim, happy to see that Ronald had started wearing a smile again, submitted to the man's argument, "Fine, a breakfast of Nacos it is then." Kim said in a playful teasing way as they entered the restaurant.

"Ola Stoppables." Seemingly assistant manager for life Ned greeted the pair as the came in.

"Umm yeah I guess that's a correct statement." Kim answered to a confused looking Ned as she approached the counter to place their orders.

"So what brings you two here this morning? It is a bit early for Nacos, even for you Ron." Ned inquired.

"I haven't had sustenance yet this morning and this fine young lady said that she would purchase me my much needed sustenance."

Ned looked at Ronald as though he was growing something from his forehead.

"I said I would buy him a Naco for breakfast." Kim informed.

"Besides which a Naco always tastes better when someone else pays for it." Ronald said triumphantly.

"Which I want to talk to you about." Kim said as she gently punched Ronald in the arm.

"Oh right, well in that case then I'll bring your order out to you when it's ready." Ned said.

Watching as Ned headed to the back to begin making two Nacos, Ronald and Kim made their way in to the dinning area. Taking a booth, but not "their" old booth, the two young adults sat down to await their meal.

"So now that I have bought you a Naco yet, does this make up for last night?" Kim asked.

"I'll let you know once I have tasted my Naco." Ronald said with a grin before continuing, "Of coarse I forgive you for last night Kim. Ron, I'm not so sure about though."

Kim let out a small sigh of relief that Ronald did not fail to pick up on.

"Kim, were you actually worried that I was angry with you about last night?"

"No, yes, I don't know. I mean I was sort of worried about last night, but that wasn't the only thing I'm worried about." Looking up at Ronald's brown eyes Kim finally decided to tell him what was on her mind. "Look Ronald, I don't think it was a Freudian slip when you said you forgave me for last night. You meant what you said, just last night, but not the other things from the past." Kim then paused for a second as she collected her thoughts, "I've tried to reach out to you on several different occasions, but you never answer my calls, you never respond to e-mails, you won't give me your address in Lowerton, and your visit to my folk's house last night was the first time you've been there since my wedding. I was starting to wonder if maybe you really do hate me, or worse you never wanted to see either me or your brother again."

Watching Ronald for several minutes as he made no move to disagree with her assessment, Kim began to feel a growing sense of dread with in her gut. "I guess I was more right than I thought. You do hate me."

Ronald thought about what Anne had told him the previous night during their car ride to the Possible's home and realized that she wasn't just being a concerned mother but that Kim really was feeling as though Ronald really was angry with her and ignoring her. Ronald also realized that a small part of him had in fact still been angry with Kim, and maybe even a bit jealous. Once again Ronald thought about Bonnie and how she was striving to be a better person despite the set backs she suffered along the way. If Bonnie could keep trying to be better than so could Ronald.

"Do you?" Kim asked in a small voice after Ronald's lack of an answer.

"Truthfully? For a while there yes I did hate you. I hated the fact that you broke my heart the way you did by choosing Ron over me, and that I was betrayed by my best friend."

"I'm sorry Ronald, but it wasn't like it was an easy decision for me either." Kim said as she stopped her self from grabbed on to Ronald's hand out of habit, "There were two identical men in my life that cared about and I knew that I was going to break one of their hearts no matter what I did. What would you do if there happened to be a clone of me and you had to choose between the two of us?"

"I know, and I guess I can't blame you for your choice either. It had to be a hell of a choice to make knowing that no matter what some one was going to end up being hurt. I think what hurt me the most though was feeling as though I had lost out to that imposter."

"Ronald, we've been over this before, Ron is the original, and you are the clone. But that doesn't matter to any one but you."

Ronald sighed at Kim's answer. Even though he had absolutely no empirical proof that he was the orginal and Ron was the clone, that what his gut feeling kept telling him. "I guess your right Kim. I probably should let that go." Then a after a second Ronald added, "But as for what I would do if there had been a clone of you, I just would have suggested that we all move to Utah and convert to Mormonism, then we all could have gotten married."

Kim had to stifle a laugh at Ronald's comment, "But Ronald, that would be bigamy."

"Thank you, that's big of me too." Ronald said while waggling his eyebrows and shaking an imaginary cigar in his hand.

After a moment of laughter Kim finally collected herself enough to continue her conversation, "Ronald. I know my decision hurt you. It probably hurt you more than I can ever know. But I want you to know that it was the hardest decision I ever had to make in my life, and to an extent it hurt me too. Even after I made it I was still wracked with doubt if I had done the right thing. I spent a lot of nights lying in my bed wondering if I had done the right thing, if there was someway I could have done things with out breaking your heart in the process." Kim then paused to take a breath before continuing, "At first I didn't know if I would be able to face you again, so I ignored you for a while, hoping that you would eventually be able to forgive me. But after several months, and after sending you several unanswered messages, I could see that you weren't going to forgive me that easily. At first I thought it might be better if I just left you out of my life, but my mom insisted that I try to be friends with you, if not for my sake then at least for your brother's sake." Kim then began to smile again. "I know my mom is smart, but she can be pushy at times too."

"That she can." Ronald acknowledged. "But that's probably a good thing. If she hadn't insisted that I let her give me a ride last night then we probably wouldn't be talking now."

"Ola again Stoppables, here I bring you our finest creation for the fine couple." Ned said with a false flourish as he placed two Naco's in front of his friends.

"Um about that Ned…" Kim began.

"Nah, let him have his fun." Ronald interrupted.

Ned could simply look back and forth between the two in confusion for a moment before he figured out what was going on, "Oh I get, your talking about top secret stuff. I bet it's top secret stuff, yeah top secret stuff. I figured it out, I'm such a genius, ha haha ha haha ha ha…".

"Ned, your being annoying. Please go away so Kim and I can talk." Ronald said flatly.

A slightly surprised and rebuffed Ned quickly left the two to their meal while mutter under his breath about people complaining about him acting rudely and insensitively.

"Ronald, stop picking on poor Ned. That was not only rude but you're going to have him confused for the rest of the day." Kim chuckled. She was finding it surprising how well they were getting along, and how at easy going and happy Ronald seemed to be. Nothing like the sullen man she knew from a year ago.

"You think he's confused now, wait till I tell him I have a girlfriend."

Kim couldn't help but to laugh out loud at the image before she regained her composure. "Speaking of girlfriends, I was certainly surprised when you mentioned that little bit of information last night. Is she the reason that you're back in Middleton?"

"Yes."

"I see." Kim said neutrally. "I had hoped that you had come back to Middleton to try to fix things between you and Ron, or hopefully me. Guess that was just wishful thinking."

"No offense Kim, but you and Ron were the last thing on my mind when I came back to Middleton. I needed to get B…, er my girlfriend somewhere she could get medical help and the first thing I thought of was Middleton and your mom. I hindsight any doctor or hospital would have been fine, but I was sort of in a panic, so I went with what I felt comfortable with."

"I can understand that Ronald. She must really mean a lot to you, and since you're taking the time to have a Naco with me that must mean that she's ok then."

"When I left last night she was doing ok. But I do want to go back and check on her again. She isn't close with her family and could really use some company."

"Is she the reason that you're so happy today, because you were on your way to see her?"

Ronald began to smile as he thought about his significant other, "Mostly."

"Mostly?" Kim asked confused.

"Kim, it wasn't my intention to get together, yet alone try to fix my relationship with you and Ron. But that just sort of got dropped in my lap yesterday," Ronald paused for a few seconds as if reconsidering his words. "Well maybe not so much dropped as pushed. Your mom did a good job convincing me that I should try to least be civil towards you and Ron."

Kim giggled as she answered, "Yep that's my mom, she knows how to be pushy when she wants to be."

"Maybe it's better that I don't have her as a mother in law then."

This comment elicited a round of laughter from both Kim and Ronald. Getting his laughter under control Ronald began to dig in to this Naco but after a few bites he noticed that Kim wasn't eating her's but was instead staring at him.

"What is it Kim? Do I have something on my face?" Ronald asked as he used a napkin to try and wipe away any offending food.

"No Ronald, you don't have any food on your face. But…"

"But what?" Ronald asked as Kim's silence dragged on.

"It's just that. Well to be honest Ronald, other than when we talk about your brother Ron, you seem, happier than I've seen you in a long time. Your girlfriend must be a good influence on you. Does she have a name?"

"Yes she does."

"Well I know it starts with a B since you almost mentioned her name earlier."

"Yes it does start with a B. But I would rather not mention her name right now."

"How come? Afraid I'll get jealous?"

"No it's not that."

"Well what ever her name is I can tell you like her a lot. Every time you talk about her your face lights up

She's a really good person Kim. In fact she's the reason I'm no longer mad at you."

"Wow, she must be something then."

"Yeah, I think I will keep her around." Ronald said before a frown replaced the smile on his face, "If she still wants me around that is."

This caught Kim by surprise and she asked what Ronald meant by that.

"Kim, we both know about Ron and me. One of us is the original, the other is a clone. I know everyone tells me that Ron is the original and that I'm just the clone, and that I still contend that I'm the original and that Ron is the clone. But the problem is that my girlfriend doesn't know that I'm, well that I'm Ronald and not Ron." Seeing the look of confusion on Kim's face Ronald explained, "When we first meet she called me Ron because that's who she thought that's who I was, not Ronald but Ron."

"It never occurred to me that could be a problem for you Ronald, having people think your someone else." Kim acknowledged, "Do you want me to help explain things to her? I would like to meet her someday. Maybe I can visit her at the hospital with you? You did say that she could use some company."

"No." Ronald said quickly. "I mean it's probably better if I explain things to her myself. You see when she called me Ron I asked her to call me Ronald, and she knows that we aren't together, but I never explained why. So I guess I sort of kept a secret from her." Ronald then looked down at this Naco with out bothering to take another bite, "But if she likes me for me then that shouldn't change things right?"

Kim noticed the almost pleading tone in Ronald's voice as he asked the question. Whoever, this girl was she meant a lot to Ronald. And if she meant a lot to Ronald, then that meant a lot to Kim, and she would do what ever she could to help Ronald with his relationship, "Your right Ronald, it shouldn't change things. You're a great guy and any girl should be proud to have you as a boyfriend."

The acknowledgement of the slight grimace that crossed Ronald's face at those words was left unspoken by the two.

"Thanks Kim, coming from you that means a lot to me."

"No big, that's what friends are for." Kim said with a smile, "That is if you want to be friends?"

"That's actually something I've been thinking about recently. I won't deny that it hurt losing you as a girlfriend, but it also hurt losing you as a friend. Kim, I know that things will be a bit akweird between us, but I would like to try to be your friend again."

"And I yours." Kim said as this time she took Ronald's hands in hers.

"Thanks KP, err I guess I can't call you that any more can I?"

"No one does not even Ron. But I'll tell you what, I'll make an exception for you."

Ronald grinned ear to ear. "Thanks KP, my world's a little more right then it has been for a long time."


	14. Chapter 14

Kim Possible: Ron's Dinner

Chapter 14

AN: Yes I know it's been a long time since I have updated this story. I had a terrible case of writers block and had to finally seduce my muse to come back to me with promises of large quantities of whisky. So fear not loyal readers, I do intend to finish this fic.

I.

"Welcome home." Ronald said as he opened the door to his apartment the next day. No he corrected himself, not his apartment, their apartment.

"It feels good to be home." Bonnie replied before stopping to contemplate the word, "Home. Funny how it wasn't that long ago I would never have thought of this place in those terms."

"I know. Things change and all we can do is change with them."

"All too true." Bonnie said sadly.

"Do you need anything? Water, something to eat, or a pillow?" Ronald asked.

"Just a glass of water so I can take my antibiotics."

"Coming right up." Ronald answered as he rushed to the kitchen to fulfill the request.

"Thank you." Bonnie said as she used the water to wash down her pill. "But I told you once already that I don't need you babying me. I can take care of myself."

As if to prove that point Bonnie stood up from the couch, snatched up the small plastic bag from Smartymart that contained a pair of pajamas for her and made her way to the bedroom.

"Are you sure? I can stay here if you need me to." Ronald protested as he began to follow.

Bonnie then turned around and snapped at Ronald, "Ronald, I told you in the car that I'm perfectly capable of staying here and resting while you go to the diner. In fact I told you that twice but you won't listen. I don't need a protector."

Ronald stood there and looked both hurt and dejected. He had thought that they were now a couple, but apparently his definition of being a couple was different than Bonnie's.

Seeing the hurt look on Ronald's face Bonnie softened her tone before continuing, "I'm sorry Ronald. I didn't mean to snap at you like that. But I mean it when I say I don't want a protector. What I want is a boyfriend, a partner, an equal." Bonnie then sat down her bag and stepped towards Ronald. "Over the past few days you've been a better boyfriend to me and looked out for me more than anyone else ever was. But I don't want to be a burden to you," Bonnie then held up her hand to cut off Ronald's protest, "I know your going to tell me that I'm not a burden. But that's how I feel, and I don't want to be that, I want to be a partner. And right now the only way I can keep from being a burden is to stay here and rest and let you go and work at the diner. OK?"

Ronald looked at the woman in front of him and smiled as he gently hugged her. "I'm sorry Bonnie. I guess I didn't realize how you felt or that maybe I was smothering you. It's just that you've become so important to me I'm just a little overly cautious is all." Then releasing his girlfriend he continue, "I'll let you get your rest, because tomorrow your coming to work at the diner with me. If you feel up to it that is."

"I'm sure I will. Now get out of here so a girl can have some privacy." Bonnie teased with a wink.

II.

Ronald sat down at one of the tables of his diner with a glass of water to take a break. He had been working for the past couple of hours cleaning, sorting, and generally getting the place ready for business tomorrow. The time spent doing any number of generally mindless chores had allowed him to think over his feelings and all that had happened during the past few days. Taking a sip of water, a part of Ronald wished that he could be back at his apartment with Bonnie. He missed her and wanted to check on her to make sure she was doing ok. Another part of Ronald wished that she could be here working beside him at the diner. Those were the days he always liked best. It was nice to have someone to share the burden of work with, and share the same complaints about said work. It was also nicer when you could do that with a friend. But there was also a small part of Ronald that was actually glad to be working at the diner alone. It was giving him the change to think through and digest what had happened the past few days, and what had happened in Middleton. And his first thoughts drifted back to the lunch he had had with Kim two days ago.

III.

Two hours, two devoured Nacos, and much conversation later, Kim and Ronald were once again driving down the streets of Middleton.

"Sorry to have to bail on you Ronald, but I do have a meeting with the Red Cross that I have to attend today."

"Not a problem as long as you still plan on dropping me off at the hospital. But I didn't know that you work for the Red Cross. What do you do?" Ronald asked.

"Sure do. I let them use my name and image to help them with fund raising. Plus I sit on the board for the local Red Cross chapter here in Middleton. You know how I always liked helping people, well I found a way to get paid to do it."

"That's great KP, I'm glad you found a way to make a living doing something you enjoy."

"Um hum." Kim nodded her head in agreement. "What about you Ronald? How is your diner working out?"

"It keeps me busy, but it's working out better now that I have someone helping me to run it."

"You hired someone to work with you? The last I heard you were able to run the diner you self and didn't need to hire anyone to help you."

"He he, my dad pretty much said the same thing, but yeah it turns out that I needed a little extra help running the place."

"What do they do at the diner? Do they work full time or just some part time help?" Kim asked, her curiosity now peaked by this new information.

"She runs the cash register, helps clean tables, really helps with the book keeping, and just sort of generally helps out where she can."

"She? Does your girlfriend know about her?" Kim teased with a wink. "Either way though it's great that you have some one working for you now, it means that you diner is becoming quite successful. I'm proud of you Ronald."

"Thanks KP, yeah the diner is more successful now that I have some help with it. And as for my girlfriend knowing about my co-worker? Well I should hope they know each other, they're the same person." Ronald said with a slight chuckle at the surprised look that Kim wore.

"You're dating your co-worker?" Kim asked in surprise, "Isn't that a bit awkward?"

"A little at times."

"Such as when you two make out I bet." Kim teased playfully as she watched Ronald blush slightly.

"No, that's not the awkward part."

"It's not awkward when you two make out? Then when is it awk…." Kim's sentence trailed off as her mind filled in the blanks, "TMI!"

"What?" Ronald asked innocently, "I never said anything like that, you're the one who thought it."

"But you didn't deny it either buster." Kim pointed out as she pulled up to the front of Middleton General Hospital.

"Thanks for the ride Kim." Ronald said as the car came to a stop in front of the main entrance.

"No problem Ronald." Kim replied happily, "Are you sure you don't need me to pick you up later today?"

"Thanks for the offer Kim, but I'm ok. Besides, I need to get back to Lowerton and check on my diner."

"Ok. But make sure that you come back to Middleton occasionally to check on your best friend."

Ronald's expression became a bit down cast at the mention of Kim's words.

"Ronald, what's wrong?" Kim asked.

"Sorry Kim, but I can't say that you're still my best friend."

Kim mentally kicked her self for her carless comment. She had really wanted to try and rebuild a friendship with Ronald, but now it looked as though she might have wrecked that by rushing things to quickly. Seeing the concerned look on Kim's face, Ronald clarified what he meant.

"I don't mean I don't want you as a friend, but I just can't be your best friend. That title belongs to Ron now, and my best friend is in there." Ronald explained as he pointed towards the hospital. Kim nodded her head in understanding while silently whispering a thank you to the fates that Ronald wasn't trying to pull away again.

As Ronald began to get out of the car Kim decided to ask the one last question that was on her mind.

"Ronald, you mentioned that you're worried about telling your girlfriend about yourself, or rather that your Ronald and not Ron. My offer still stands, if you need me to help explain things to her I'd be happy to do that?"

"Thanks Kim but no thanks. I need to do this by myself."

"Ok, I just wanted you to know that I have your back."

"Thanks Kim, but I don't want you to have my back any more, you have his now."

"Ronald I can have your back too, just like in the old days…"

"Damn it Kim, I don't want it to be like the old days. It can't be like the old days." Ronald shouted as he turned on Kim. Taking a few breaths to calm down he continued, "We can't be best friends, it just wouldn't be fair to either Ron or Bo….Look Kim I'm sorry. I still have a lot of issues to sort through when it comes to you ok."

"Is that why you decided not to answer my e-mails or calls?" Kim asked in a small voice.

"Of course it is. I was hurt Kim, and even though I was still in love with you, I knew I wasn't the one who could be your lover any more, that's for Ron now. So I had to get you out of my system, so I can at least be able to talk to you like this and not have my heart broken all over again."

"Ronald, I'm so sorr…"

"It's OK Kim, there wasn't anything that could be done about that. I know there is still something there because I want to care about you as a friend, and maybe someday love you like a sister, or sister-in-law. But until I have that fully under control I need to focus on someone who I can love and who I know can love me back as a lover. And when I'm ready I'll introduce you to my girlfriend, but it may take a while." Ronald then softened his glare a little as he continued, "Look Kim, in one day I lost both a friend and lover in you, and while I'll never get that lover back, it looks like the friend I lost might be showing up again. Just give me a little more time to finish sorting things out for myself. OK?"

Kim nodded her head and swallowed before speaking, "I understand Ronald. Take all the time you need. You have my e-mail and phone number, let me know when you are ready."

Ronald smiled softly, "Sure thing KP." Then finally closing the car door to cut of any further conversation, Ronald turned and walked in to the hospital.

Kim watched the retreating image of Ronald entering the hospital and sat there thinking about what he had said long after he was out of sight. Kim was so lost in her own thoughts that she didn't realize her car was blocking the road in front of the hospital until a security officer tapped on her window.

"Look miss, you're blocking the road, now either move it along our I'll have to cite you and tow your car."

"Sorry, I guess I got lost in thought, I'll move my car." A chagrined and embarrassed Kim stammered as she put her car in to gear. She was still slightly tweaked at Ron from last night and didn't relish the thought of having to explain a parking ticket to him. Driving to the western side of the hospital, Kim found her usual parking spot, the one with a sign that read Red Cross Volunteer of the Year.

IV.

Ronald knew exactly where Bonnie's room was located in the hospital's recovery wing, but he didn't feel like going straight there. Instead he wandered around the hallways of the hospital shunning the elevators for the stairs in order to give himself more time to try and sort out the thoughts running through his head. After his conversation with Kim his mind was now a jumble of emotions and conflicting feelings. He had been excited to try to reforge his friendship with Kim, and had even admitted that he still cared about her.

But that admission was what was bothering him, as well as the question of just how much did he care about her? Mrs. Dr. P had been right when she told him yesterday that he needed to be honest with both himself and with Bonnie about any lingering feelings that he might have about Kim.

Ronald didn't think that he had any lingering feelings for Kim; but after their conversation today at Bueno Nacho things felt almost like the old days when they would go there after high school and enjoy the cheap TexMex food. As Ronald continued to think about the old days he came to a realization that the old days also carried baggage in the form of them being teased or belittled by a quite snooty Bonnie Rockwaller. Closing his eyes as these memories came to him, Ronald had to admit that the old Bonnie was nothing like the new Bonnie, his new Bonnie, and that anything that made things like the old days could very well mean giving up Bonnie.

"No." The blond haired man said out loud, his out burst surprising both himself and a few people in the hallways. Then in a much quieter voice he continued talking to himself. "No I won't lose Bonnie. Nothing is worth giving up Bonnie for, not even Kim."

Having finally reached this decision Ronald now knew what he had to do, and that meant he needed to be honest with Bonnie about who he, Ronald Stoppable, really was. But first he needed to pay someone a visit.

V.

"Ronald, what brings you to my office?" Mrs. Dr. Possible asked as the young man gently knocked on the door.

"Hi Mrs. Dr. P. I was on my way to see Bonnie but I thought I would come by and say hi first."

"Well the thought is appreciated. But what did I tell you yesterday about what to call me?"

"He he, sorry about that, mom."

"That's better."

"But I did want to stop by and let you know that I'm taking your advice."

"I gave you a lot of advice last night Ronald, so which one are you talking about?"

"All of it. I had lunch with Kim today."

"Oh? And how did that go?"

"Better than I thought it would. We both want to try to be friends again, but it's going to be harder than I thought."

"Yes it probably will."

"But my talk with Kim did make me realize that things can't be like the old days and if I want to move on then I need to be honest with Bonnie about who I am."

"I'm glad to hear that dear." Anne said with a smile as she began to type on her computer's keyboard. "Bonnie isn't scheduled to have any examinations right now so she should be in her room if you want to see her."

Ronald nodded his head, "I'll do that now. Thanks for your help, mom."

"I'm glad I was able to help."

As Ronald left her office Anne turned back to her computer to compose an e-mail when she heard a gentle knock on the door. Expecting to see Ronald again Anne was surprised when she turned around and saw her daughter Kim standing there.

"Hi mom."

"Kim, what are you doing here?"

"I wanted to talk to you for a few minutes, I sort of have some things on my mind."

"Would they happen to involve Ronald?"

Kim's look of surprise did not go unnoticed by her mother.

"No I'm not psychic dear, just a mother. Besides Ronald stopped by before you did so I know that you two talked today."

"Yeah. It didn't go as well as I had hoped. Mom he still hates me."

"Kim, Ronald does not hate you. But it is interesting to hear your assessment of things compared to his."

"Why? What did he say?"

"Sorry dear, that's doctor patient privilege there. But tell you what, I've got half an hour before I have to take the new group of interns for a tour of the hospital, why don't you tell me about your talk with Ronald."

VI.

"Hey beautiful." Ronald said as he opened the door to Bonnie's room at the hospital.

"Hey!" Bonnie exclaimed, her face brightening as the magazine she had been reading fell from her grasp to the floor below.

"How are you doing today?" Ronald asked as he approached Bonnie's bed and gave her a small kiss before retrieving her magazine.

"Mmm, better now."

"Better now? Were you not feeling well before?" Ronald asked worriedly.

"No I don't mean like that. Physically I've been feeling fine all day. But I am a lot happier now that you're here."

"Oh, well glad I could bring a little Ronshine to your day."

"I'm always happy to get a little Ronaldshine." Bonnie corrected with a smile.

"Ronaldshine, yeah I guess that's what I bring you. So have the doctors said anything yet about releasing you or about any other stuff?"

Bonnie shook her head no, "They haven't said anything specific about me leaving, other than it could be as soon as tomorrow, and they need to run a few more tests for the other stuff."

As if to prove her point a nurse walked into the room pushing a wheel chair. "Mrs. Rockwaller, I'm here to take you to the OBGYN doctor for a few tests."

"Ahh man. I just got here to see you. This tanks." Ronald complained.

"Don't worry baby you can stay here and wait for me." Bonnie said, "He can stay here and wait for me can he?"

"Yes he can wait for you here. The tests shouldn't take to long, maybe an hour at the most."

"It will be hard but I think I can wait for you that long." Ronald said as he feigned heartbreak.

Bonnie rolled her eyes at his goofiness. "I said your sense of humor was one of the things I like about you, but your kind of pushing it now funny guy."

"Anything for you."

"If you're willing to do anything for her then how about you help our patient in to the wheel chair young man." The nurse interjected sweetly.

"I'm not helpless, I can do this." Bonnie protested.

"I'm sure you can babe, but please just until they release you lets follow the hospitals rules ok?" Ronald explained as he offered an arm for Bonnie to support her self with. After getting his girlfriend set comfortably in the chair he gave her a small kiss on the check and promised to stay right there and wait for her.

VII.

Kim was both tired and cranky. The meeting of local Red Cross chapter had dragged on and on and it seemed like all the board members did was talk in endless circles. And all they were discussing today was assisting the hospital in its biannual blood drive, something they had done dozens of times in the past. Yet it seemed as if they were trying to reinvent the wheel in order to do so. Kim let out a long sigh of frustration as she had to also admit her short comings that day. Half of her mind had been thinking about both Ron and Ronald and her later conversation with her mother, which meant she hadn't truly been focused on the meeting at hand, which meant that they had to meet again in a few days to finish discussing what they should have finished today. With one last weary sigh Kim boarded an elevator that was going down as she wondered how Ronald's visit with his mysterious girlfriend had gone. The elevator that Kim was riding in shut and began to descend just as the elevator next to it opened and a large black female nurse exited the elevator pushing a wheelchair with Bonnie in it.

"That was the last test the doctor needed, he should be by your room in a few hours to give you the results." Nurse Shelia explained.

"Good, I'm tired of being poked, probed, and generally having my privates looked at."

"Well it could be worse, at least you didn't need a rectal exam."

Despite the humor in the nurse's voice the former cheerleader couldn't help but to shudder at the thought. But the promise of a little Ronaldshine would help to erase that thought from her mind.

"Either way dear at least you have someone waiting for you, and that can make anything better." The older, dark hued nurse stated sagely as she opened the door to Bonnie's room to reveal Ronald waiting patiently inside.

"Yes it does." Bonnie agreed, "A little Ronaldshine can make anything better."

"But not for too long I'm afraid, visiting hours are almost over."

"That's ok, we'll make the most of the time." Ronald said as he helped Bonnie out of the wheelchair and back in to her bed.

"Just don't make too much of it, our little patient here is still recovering and doesn't need to exert herself to much."

"Yes ma'am." He said with a fake salute which the nurse crisply returned.

"You are such a goof ball." Bonnie chuckled, "And that's what I like about you."

"That's all you like about me? Boy I tell you I get no respect." Ronald said as he adjusted an imaginary tie.

"That and other things, like how you're always here for me."

"Hey, when it comes to those I care about, I've always got their back, and I'll always be there for them."

"Thank you Ronald. That means a lot to me right now." Bonnie said as her voice shook a little with nervousness.

"What's wrong?"

"I'm nervous about the results of the tests."

Ronald nodded his head as he sympathetically placed his hand on top of Bonnie's. "It'll be ok I'm sure."

"But what if it's not?" She demanded.

"It might be, it might not be. We won't know until the doctor comes back. But until then it won't do us any good to worry and stress out about it."

Bonnie let out a long sigh as she accepted the wisdom of his words. She didn't know if Ronald had always been this caring and compassionate of a person, but if he had then she was even more perplexed as to why he and Kim had broken up. Leaning back against her elevated bed Bonnie decided that after she had been released from the hospital and they were working at the diner again that she would finally ask Ronald about him and Kim.

VIII.

A couple of hours later Bonnie threw down the magazine that she had been reading in frustration. She and Ronald had tried to pass the time with a bit of conversation as they awaited the doctor's results, but with out them brining up topics they didn't want to talk about there wasn't a whole lot to talk about. Eventually they had both started reading magazines, but even that couldn't completely take Bonnie's mind off of things.

"What's wrong?" Ronald asked.

"Ughh. I can't stand this waiting."

"I know it's tough but you need to relax and not get yourself too worked up. Your still recovering you know."

Bonnie shot him a dirty look but then quickly softened her gaze. "I know that. But I'm worried. What if I'm no longer able to have children?"

Before Ronald could say anything though Bonnie continued, "If I'm no longer able to have children it will be my fault. That's what's bugging me the most. I want to know if this is my fault."

"What do you mean?"

"The scarring in my uterus that they discovered when the docs operated on me, it's what put me in the hospital in the first place."

"But the doc said that was due to internal bleeding." Ronald countered.

"Caused by a reopened injury." Bonnie said cutting him off. Then taking a deep breath Bonnie knew that she needed to tell Ronald the truth about how she had received her injury.

"Ronald, when you first meet me at the diner, I was looking pretty rough wasn't I? Did you ever wonder why I looked that way?"

The nodding of her boyfriend's head told her she could continue her story.

"I hadn't had a decent meal or decent place to sleep in over a week. I had absolutely no money to my name, zero. I had spent it all the previous week to get a cheap hotel and some," Bonnie stopped for a moment as she considered her words, "Some stuff that I needed. I had to do that because…. Well you know why, because I was pregnant and I needed to abort it. I did a back alley abortion on myself with a coat hanger and that's how I ended up hurt and now I might not be able to ever have children. And I finally found someone I wouldn't mind having children with." Bonnie explained as she broke down in to tears.

Ronald was shocked by Bonnie's story. He knew she had had it rough prior to them meeting, heck Bonnie had told him as much the night that Tara had come to visit, but he didn't realize just how rough. Now she was facing the possibility that her actions from one night would be saddling her with life long consequences. However, a small part of Ronald was also surprised at Bonnie's rather brazen comment about wanting to have children with him. Unfortunately that conversation would have to wait for another time. For now as Bonnie continued to sob Ronald wrapped his arms around her and began to gently rock her as he tried to sooth and comfort the woman.

"Shhh, it's ok Bonnie. It's ok. I'm here for you, no matter what."

Ronald also mentally made a note that now was not the best time to tell Bonnie about Ron vs Ronald. That conversation would also have to wait for another day.

"But it's not fair." She sobbed, "I did things I'm not proud of I know. But why do I have to be punished like this?"

"No one is punishing you Bonnie. Besides the doctor might come in and say that your healthy and everything will be all right."

"Do you promise?"

Ronald hesitated for a second before answering, "No, I can't say I can promise that. But I can promise you that no matter what I will be here for you Bonnie. No matter what."

Bonnie buried her face even deeper in to the Ronald's chest as he continued to gently rock her.

Meanwhile, outside of the recovery room Nurse Shelia turned to the OBGYN doctor, "We need to give them a little time. Maybe you should come back in about half an hour."

IX.

After the OBGYN doctor had given her assessment of Bonnie's condition Ronald had continued to hold and sooth his girlfriend for some time until she had gently pushed him away.

"Thank you Ronald. I'm feeling a lot better now."

"That's good."

However, their conversation was then interrupted by a knock on the door as a familiar doctor poked his head in to the room. "Mrs. Rockwaller?"

"I would rather you call me Bonnie." A chagrined Dr. Antonuci was chastised.

"Sorry Bonnie, but I have some good news for you. Based on your charts it looks as if you can be discharged tomorrow, assuming that you are feeling up to it.

"I'm feeling pretty good right now. Is there any way you can discharge me tonight?"

"Sorry Bonnie but I'm afraid not. As a doctor it would be against my professional opinion to do so."

"Well I tried." Bonnie said as she squeezed Ronald's hand.

"But I do have some good news. I pulled a few strings and got the hospital to agree to absorb the vast majority of the cost of your stay here."

"You did?" Bonnie asked in surprise.

"Yes I did. Bonnie, I'm a friend of your mother, but I'm also your friend. I feel bad for the way things turned out between you and your mother. If I had know how estranged you two have become I wouldn't have asked her to come here to see you. This is just sort of my way of saying I'm sorry. Besides, it wasn't that hard to convince the hospital board to absorb the costs, apparently Dr. Possible had already made the same recommendation to the governing board."

"Why would she do that?" Bonnie asked.

"Well I sort of ran in to her and I explained that my girlfriend was here so I guess she took pity on me." Ronald offered.

Bonnie didn't entirely buy Ronald's story, but considering how expensive her hospital stay could have been she wasn't about to look a gift horse in the mouth.

X.

After their conversation with Dr. Antonuci Ronald was finally forced to leave as visiting hours were over and both he and Bonnie needed their rest. Returning to his apartment that night Ronald found it difficult to sleep as he had become used to sharing the night with his roommate. The next day Ronald was at the hospital as soon as visiting hours started to see if they would discharge Bonnie. Much to both of their relief Bonnie was found well enough to be discharged from the hospital that day and by noon the two were on their way back to Lowerton.

XI.

Letting out a deep sigh Ronald finished the glass of water and placed it in the diner's dishwasher. Looking at the clock on the wall he saw that it was after five already and he was done setting things up for tomorrow. Locking up the diner for the night, Ronald was eager to get back home to get some rest, and to be with Bonnie.

Unlocking the door to the apartment Ronald made his way to the bed room to check on Bonnie and found her asleep. He could also see by the tissues lying next to her that she had been crying while he had been gone. Gently closing the door Ronald went back to the kitchen to get something to eat. Staring at the contents of the fridge for several moments he finally settled on just having a beer for dinner. Flopping down on the couch Ronald flipped on the TV and began to nurse his beer as he waited for Bonnie to wake up.

Half an hour later Bonnie came out of the bedroom. "Ronald, how long have you been home?"

"About half an hour. I saw you were still asleep so I decided to let you rest."

"Thank you. I guess I needed it more than I thought. I don't even remember falling asleep."

"Yeah I guess you did."

Sitting down next to her boyfriend Bonnie leaned her head against his shoulder and in a matter of moments was soon drifting off to sleep again. The next time she awoke Bonnie found herself lying on the couch and being gently shaken by Ronald.

"Bonnie, wake up dear. Here I made us some dinner."

"I fell asleep again?"

"Yeah, pretty quick too. I guess you just felt more comfortable leaning next to me."

Bonnie, who now that she had food in front of her was quite aware of how hungry she was, simply nodded her head as she dug in to her dinner.

Twenty minutes later Bonnie, who had insisted that she could carry the empty dishes to the kitchen sink, let out a large yawn, a yawn that was mimicked by Ronald.

"If your tired why don't you go to bed?" Ronald asked.

"I am tired, but I don't want to go to bed alone. I want to go to bed with you." Bonnie answered, "Oh and don't worry, I cleaned up the tissues out of the bed."

Ronald frowned a little at her words but didn't say anything. He knew Bonnie was having a hard time dealing with what the doctors had told her at the hospital. After reviewing all of their tests and examinations in their medical opinion Bonnie had about a one percent chance of ever being able to conceive and have children. He had, both physically and metaphorically, offered his shoulder for her to cry on, and cry she had, but it just didn't seem like anything he said or did could bring Bonnie out of her depression. So Ronald was surprised when as soon as they had crawled in to bed together that Bonnie had wrapped her arms around him.

"Ronald, I know I've been kind of depressed lately and I know you've been trying to cheer me up. I just want to say thank you."

"Sure Bonnie," Ronald said as he returned her embrace, "I've…."

"Shhh." Bonnie said as she placed a finger to his lips. "Just hold me. That's all I need from you right now. We can deal with anything else tomorrow."


	15. Chapter 15

Kim Possible: Ron's Dinner

Chapter 15

AN: For those who have stuck with this story this long, there is finally a bit of a pay off as in this chapter I give you the long awaited meeting between Kim and Bonnie. Also a big thanks to Joe Stoppingham for being my Beta and for helping to suggest a few good lines to add to this.

I.

The next day, after a good night's sleep and over a delicious breakfast, Bonnie told Ronald that she felt well enough to work with him at the diner.

"Are you sure you up to this Bonnie?" Ronald asked.

"Yes, I'm sure. I'll take it easy, I promise, and if I get tired I can go and rest in the back office. Besides, I don't feel like spending another day rotting my brain on TV."

"OK, I'm just happy that you're feeling better."

"You mean you're not happy to get to spend the day with me?" Bonnie teased, giving him a playful stare.

"Oh I am," Ronald said as he gently embraced his girlfriend and brought her close for a kiss, "But remember the nurse at the hospital said that I need to take it easy since you're still recovering."

Bonnie pouted slightly, "Just a few more days." She said playfully, "I promise to be gentle right back."

Despite the PG-13 teasing, they were both happy with the prospect of getting to spend the day with each other, even if it was while at work.

The diner was busy that day and the couple got to spend less time together than they hoped. Finally, after the last customer had left and the diner was locked up for the night; they had a change to sit down to dinner and talk.

"Man the diner was busy today. You would think people actually missed me or something."

"Nah, they just missed your great cooking." Bonnie replied as she took a bite of dinner.

"Oh that's not nice." Ronald retorted.

"Hey remember who you're talking to here, I'm known for not always being nice. Besides I can at least understand why you were so busy cooking and helping to clear tables all day, people missed your cooking and wanted to get some while they could. But what I don't understand is how so much paperwork can build up over just a few days."

"Now you know why the office looked like the disaster that it did." Ronald supplied, "But at least you won't have to worry about that tomorrow since we'll be taking the day off to have dinner with my family."

"Are you sure you still want me to come?" Bonnie asked, "I know I'm your girlfriend but we haven't been together that long. I don't want to take away from your time with your family."

"Bonnie, I want nothing more than to have you come over for dinner and to meet my family. Besides what are you going to do? Sit here and try to rot your brain on Trash Heap TV again?" He joked.

"No. But it's just that you've seen how dysfunctional my family is and how bad my relationship with them is." Bonnie paused as she let out a sigh, "I don't want to cause any strife with your family."

"And you won't Bonnie. Trust me, my folks and sister want to meet you."

"OK." Bonnie said snuggling up against her boyfriend a bit. "Tell me about this sister of yours. I never knew you had one."

"She's not my biological sister. My folks adopted her my senior year of high school."

"Seriously?"

"Seriously." Ron suddenly paused.

"What?"

"I just thought of Motor Ed..."

"Who?"

"Never mind, another time, another place, many missions ago."

"Oh," She responded, knowing the less talk about Kim the better.

"But if you start stuffing your face with hoagie sandwiches then I will be concerned. Getting back to my sister, at first I didn't like her and it took a while for me to warm up to her, but now she's one hundred percent family." He paused once again grinning at the brunette. "Sort of like you."

"That's just wrong comparing your girlfriend to your sister. Fraud would have a thing or two to say about that." Bonnie said as she pulled away from Ronald and playfully smacked him on the shoulder. "But if you really do insist on taking me to meet your family then I would like to pick up some nicer clothes to wear when I meet them."

As the two continued to chat over their dinner; and the night wore on; Ronald considered telling Bonnie the truth about who he really was. It was something that needed to be done, and the sooner the better. But the thought of doing so scared him. Both he and Bonnie had been through a lot lately and she was already nervous about meeting his family, and he didn't want to put extra stress on her.

Later that night as the young couple snuggled up in bed, Ronald decided that the best time to tell Bonnie about himself, his brother Ron, and Kim, would be after she had meet his parents and seen that they accepted her. Maybe he would even wait until after dinner and a couple of glasses of wine.

II.

The next day, at the brunette's insistence, the two went shopping for some new clothes. As far as Ronald was concerned, she looked fine and his family would accept her as is. But Bonnie wasn't feeling as confident and felt she needed a set of nice clothes to make a good impression. Bonnie had to admit that it was sometimes hard to resist her impulse to go for the expensive latest fashions simply because they were new. But she managed, despite Ronald's insistence that she could pick out something pricier if looking nice meant that much to her, to stick to choosing from the more sensibly priced fashions from last year. A couple of hours later the two had finally found a nice looking dress that was a compromise between looks and cost that the two could agree on.

As they rode back to their apartment Bonnie continued to wonder how Ronald was able to afford her new dress. After her recent trip to the hospital surely Ronald must be drowning in debt? As she thought this over she remember something that Dr. Antonici had said, that Dr. Possible had also convinced the hospital to cover most of the cost of her stay. While Bonnie wasn't about to look a gift horse in the mouth, still she wondered why Dr. Possible had done that.

"Ronald, I want to ask you something." Bonnie asked softly.

"Um OK, what is it?" Ronald was concerned where this might be headed.

"At the hospital before I was discharged, you said that you ran in to Mrs. Possible and she took pity on you. That's why she helped convince the hospital to cover the cost of my hospitalization."

"Yeah, that's right. Why do you ask?"

"I just find it weird that she would do that for you. It's not like you and Kim are still together."

"No, but she does consider me to be family, no matter what my relationship with Kim is."

"And what is your relationship with Kim?"

Ronald paused for a second as he considered how to best answer that. Fortunately for him Bonnie saved him from her own question.

"It's OK Ronald, you don't have to answer that... But I did notice that you took down most of the pictures you had of her in the apartment. When I first saw all those pictures you had I thought that you were still pretty hung up on her."

"He he, yeah I guess I kind of was still hung up on Kim more than I wanted to admit."

"And are you still hung up on her? I know you two were best friends for like forever."

"No, I'm over her now. Besides, it just seemed a little weird to have all those pictures of her now that we're dating." Ronald then turned and smiled at Bonnie, "But I guess I can always replace them with pictures of you. Maybe we can play fashion shot when we get home and you show me your new dress." He said with a slightly devilish grin.

"Down boy, don't want you to get too worked up before we get to your parents place."

III.

Later that afternoon Ronald's old Pontiac pulled in to a peaceful neighborhood that was a suburb of Middleton and home to the Stoppables. Bonnie had been mostly quiet during the ride and had become even more so the closer they got to their destination. Making one final turn, the car came to a stop in front of a nice, if somewhat lower middle class looking, house.

Ronald got out and went to the other side of the car before he noticed that Bonnie hadn't moved from her seat.

"Are you OK?" Ronald asked as he opened Bonnie's door.

"Ronald, I'm scared," Bonnie admitted as she climbed out of his car.

Ronald looked at his girlfriend and smiled. He already knew that she was scared, by how quickly and strongly she had latched on to his hand when he had offered it to her during their trip to Middleton. Plus the fact that she had told him twice during the course of the day.

"It's OK, you don't need to be." Ronald reassured as her as he reached for her hand.

"But what if they judge me?"

"They won't, they already know that we're living together. Besides my folks aren't that old fashioned."

"I didn't mean about that."

"No, they won't judge you about anything else either."

"What anything else?" She asked, "How much have you told them about me?"

"I told them about how we met; that you had been staying with me and that you were in the hospital, but not everything."

"So they don't know about…" Bonnie finished the question by gesturing towards her abdomen.

"No they don't. But even if they did, they wouldn't judge."

"Promise?" Bonnie asked in an almost pleading tone.

"Promise." He said as he pulled her in for a small but reassuring kiss before continuing to the front door.

As the couple approached the door Bonnie was surprised to see it suddenly swing open to reveal a young Asian girl standing there. The girl had to be about six or seven years old, and although she bore no resemblance to Ronald it did nothing to stop her from racing out and hugging the man she called her brother.

"Hi Hana, it's good to see you again." Ronald said as he pried the young girl from his leg. "Hana, I..." They were playing a little game of 'pull the n'truder off' and it caused Bonnie to smile. "... want you to meet someone. This is Bonnie."

"Oh, your girlfriend."

"Yes, my girlfriend."

"Hi, I'm Hana." The little girl said as she offered her hand towards Bonnie.

"Hi Hana, it's nice to meet you." Bonnie said as she knelt down a little and returned the handshake.

"You're pretty." Hana commented; much to Bonnie's delight; and Ronald's amusement.

Before any other pleasantries could be exchanged though they were interrupted by a woman's voice from inside the house.

"Ronald is that you?"

"Yes, it's me, mom."

"Good, I could use your help in the kitchen for a moment."

"OK, be right there." Turning to his sister Ronald suggested that Hana show Bonnie around while he helped their mom.

"Sure thing!" Hana enthused as she grabbed a hold of Bonnie's hand and began to drag her in to the house. "This is the den, and this is the hallway where we keep our family pictures." Hana explained as she continued the tour.

Bonnie only had a chance to glance at some of the pictures as they walked by them. Some of them were of Hana, some of Ronald, some of the family, and a few include both Ronald and Kim. However, before Bonnie could either dwell or more closely examine these she felt a tug on her hand as her tour guide dragged her along.

"This is the bathroom. But don't use it, daddy's in there right now." Hana said as she pinched her nose shut.

Bonnie couldn't help but to smile at her antics, she was starting too really like Ronald's little sister and could see how he had influenced the young girl.

Hana's tour continued for a couple of more minutes before they arrived at the patio in the back of the house. "This is where we like to eat outside. Come on I want you to meet my brother and sister."

Brother and sister? Bonnie was beginning to wonder just how many siblings Ronald had not told her about as she was dragged along to the backyard by the excited young girl.

IV.

Meanwhile in the kitchen Ronald was removing a tray from the oven as his mother was busy attending to several pots on the stove.

"Thanks for the help dear. I would have asked Ron to help me but since you were here…"

"Wait! Are Ron and Kim coming over for dinner too?"

"Well why wouldn't they? All of my children are welcome to join us for Sabbath dinner."

"You could have told me they were coming tonight. I could have warned Bonnie."

"Warned her about what? That you have a twin brother?"

"Yes! Remember she doesn't know that I'm a clone, and she doesn't know that's why I'm not with Kim. I haven't told her yet."

"Why should your girlfriend be worried about why you're not with Kim?" Mrs. Stoppable asked.

"Bonnie and Kim never got along in high school, but even then she knew how much Kim meant to me as a friend. Now that we're dating, Bonnie has become sort of protective of me and I know she would love to have a long discussion with Kim about how she broke my heart." Ronald then let out a sigh, "I guess I had better go tell her before Kim arrives."

"Oh dear, Kim and Ron are in the backyard."

"What? Their already here? I asked Hana to show Bonnie to the backyard."

"Oh Ronald, stop over reacting. If Bonnie runs in to Kim; it can't be that much of a problem will it?" Mrs. Stoppable asked. The sudden sound of Bonnie's scream gave her all the answer she needed. "Oh dear."

TBC


	16. Chapter 16

Kim Possible: Ron's Dinner

Chapter 16

AN: Originally this was to be part of chapter 15, but it made sense to break it up. Hope you all are still enjoying this little fic.

I.

As Hana was busy dragging her new friend around the house she decided to end the tour by taking Bonnie out in to the backyard. Unfortunately for the young girl she failed to notice the look of shock that crossed Bonnie's face and caused her blood to run cold with fear. Namely the sight of one Kim Possible playing kissy face with one Ronald Stoppable.

For a moment Bonnie's mind reeled from the sight and her world felt as though it were ready to come crashing down around her, but just for a moment. Soon the old Bonnie kicked in and her blood went from running cold to running hot, boiling hot. There was no way she was about to lose the person she loved with out a fight. Clenching her fists tight Bonnie began to approach the target of her anger as she let out a battle cry that would have made any Klingon proud, "KIM POSSIBLE, GET YOUR HANDS OFF MY BOYFRIEND!"

II.

Meanwhile, inside the house…

"Ronald, stop over reacting. If Bonnie runs in to Kim it won't be that much of a problem will it?" Mrs. Stoppable asked. The sudden sound of Bonnie's scream gave her all the answer she needed. "Oh dear."

Ronald rushed out of the kitchen and towards the backyard, with his mother not far behind, to survey any possible damage. When he reached the backyard there was a scene of chaos as a shocked and surprised Kim who was being practically hoisted off the ground by the front of her shirt by a quite irate Bonnie. Between the two women stood both Ron and Hana who were trying; to little avail; to separate the two women as Bonnie continued to hurl accusations and insults towards Kim.

"Bonnie? What are…" A bewildered Kim tired to ask.

"I'll teach you to mess around with Ronald's heart!" Bonnie shouted as she brought her hand all the way back in order to slap the red head.

"What are you talking about?"

"First you break his heart, then you try to play kissy face with him out here." But just as Bonnie had finished bringing her hand up she suddenly felt someone grab it and hold her back. "Let go of me!" She yelled struggling to move her arm.

"Bonnie, don't do it. She didn't do anything."

"Like hell she didn't!" Bonnie replied as she continued to struggle to free her arm.

"Bonnie, listen to me. It's me Ronald. I'm right here. Kim didn't kiss me. Please, just turn around and look at me." Ronald pleaded.

"B-b-but, but I saw her kiss you." Bonnie stammered. "I saw her."

"Bonnie, please, just turn around and look at me OK?"

Bonnie stopped struggling against the person holding her arm but she still refused to lower it. Instead she turned her head enough to see who was preventing her going after Kim. She was shocked to see, standing to her right and slightly behind was Ronald. Quickly turning her head, another Ronald had a hold of her left hand which still had Kim's shirt. Bonnie had to look back and forth between the two Ronalds several times to make sure she was really seeing what she thought she was seeing. Finally Bonnie managed to mutter a single coherent statement,

"Two Ronalds?"

"Bonnie? Bonnie? It's me. You're Ronald, not hers." Ronald soothed as he let go of Bonnie's arm and turn the brunette so he could place his hands on to her shoulders.

"Ronald? But, but there's two of you. How?"

"He's my twin. Now if you promise to calm down and promise to not attack Kim I'll explain everything to you OK?"

It was then that Mr. Stoppable stepped out on to the patio and seeing the scene before him asked the most obvious question he could think of, "So, um, what have I missed?"

III.

The brunette's was now at least as surprised and confused as the red head had been when her make out session had been interrupted mere moments ago. She could do little more than nod her head as Ronald led her to a seat and promised to explain things to her. After sitting down with Ronald, Ron and Kim returned to their seats along with a Hana who was now scowling at Bonnie. While everyone was finding some sort of seating arrangement, Bonnie continued to stare back and forth between the two Ronalds until Mrs. Stoppable asked if she would like a drink.

"Yes, I use a stiff drink please."

"A round of stiff drinks just might be a good idea." The older woman conceded.

Soon a round of drinks, mostly consisting of Donald's prized Scotch, had been passed around and everyone took a moment to cool down and collect their thoughts.

Bonnie, clasping the glass between her hands as she struggled to remain calm, took a long pull on her drink before speaking.

"Ronald, what's going on? I didn't know you had a twin. How long have you kept this a secret?" Bonnie asked.

"He's not a twin, he's a clone." Ron supplied.

"A clone?"

"Yes but he's more like a twin." Kim began to explain.

"K, I don't want to talk to you right now." Bonnie snapped before turning her attention back towards Ronald, "So you're a clone, and you didn't think it might be a good idea to tell me this?" Bonnie demanded.

"I'm sorry Bonnie, I should have told you sooner. But I was scared."

"Scared? What was there to be scared of?"

"I was scared that it might weird you out and drive you away, or that you would react badly."

"Like I am now?"

"I'm sorry, but I didn't want to lose you."

At this point Mrs. Stoppable spoke up, "If I might add something dear, Ronald isn't just saying this to pacify you. He really is scared of losing you. You should have seen how distraught he looked last week while you were in the hospital."

Bonnie looked at Ronald and could see the worried look on his face. "So he's a clone then?" She said pointing towards Ronald.

"Yep, it only took him how many years to accept that?" Ron retorted which earned him a dirty look from Bonnie.

"But Ronald, if you're his clone…"

"We prefer to think of them as twins." Mrs. Stoppable interrupted.

"Fine, twins, if you're his twin then why are you living in Lowerton, Ronald?"

"I wanted to try to start a new life for myself."

"But why Lowerton and not here in Middleton? At least you would have had your family here."

"Yeah, family, including a sister in law." Ronald muttered.

Bonnie looked at Ronald quizzically before she understood what he meant.

"So that's why you were all broken hearted over Kim, she chose him instead of you." Bonnie deduced as she pointed towards Ron.

"Good job Bon Bon, got it in one." Ron said.

"Hey! That's uncalled for!" Ronald almost shouted coming to Bonnie's defense.

"I agree. Bonnie is our guest here Ron, you will apologize." Mr. Stoppable said.

Ron was about to protest but the look of anger on Ronald's face and the way Bonnie was now holding Ronald's hand told Ron all he needed to know.

"I'm sorry Bonnie. Ronald and I still don't always get along. We sort of hold a grudge with each other over Kim and; other things."

Bonnie nodded her head more in acknowledgment than understanding. There were a lot of things that she still didn't understand or know about her boyfriend and it would probably help if they explained things from the beginning.

"Apology accepted. But I want to know how this whole clone thing started, so tell me from the beginning."

Kim now spoke up, "Ron and I were on a mission to stop Drakken and we had tracked him to his lair…"

IV.

"Warning, self destruct system has been activated. Warning, self destruct system has been activated." A synthetic sounding female voice announced over the public address system.

"This caused four heads, three of them human and one of them a naked mole rat, to glare at the usual suspect for such actions.

"He he, my bad." Ronald said meekly as he pulled his hand away from the button he had just pushed.

"Really? Why does Dr. D keep installing self destruct devices his layers, the buffoon always ends up setting them off." Shego complained.

"It makes our job that much easier, and no dissing my fiancé." Kim replied.

"Oh so you two have finally decided to tie the knot. Good, that makes it that much easier to find you two when I want to harass you."

"Don't even think about it." Kim said as her eyes narrowed.

"Oh I'm more than just thinking about it princess." Shego taunted causing Kim to charge at the villainous.

Unfortunately for Kim this was exactly what Shego wanted and was able to deftly dodge the red head as she made her way to Drakken. "Come on Dr. D, time to go."

"But Shego my experiment." Drakken began to protest.

"Will get blown up along with the lair and you too if you don't start running."

"Ahh, good point Shego." Drakken conceded as Shego grabbed him by the collar and practically dragged him behind her. "You think you're all that, Kim Possible, but your not." Drakken bellowed impotently.

"Says the man who is being dragged away by his sidekick." Kim smirked.

"Ah KP, hate to interrupt the gloating but look." Ron said while pointing to a large countdown clock with less than thirty seconds on it.

"This is so your fault." Kim said as she, Ron, and Rufus began to run out of the lair.

"How is this my fault?" Ron protested as the lair began to explode behind them.

Moments later, after the lair had finished collapsing in on it self; two heroes and one naked mole rat emerged from the rubble covered in dust and soot giving both of them a Vaudeville black face look about them.

"Well that didn't go quite like I had hoped." Kim said as she wiped the soot away from her eyes turning her in to a reverse looking raccoon.

"Me neither." Ron added as his face like wise became a reverse raccoon.

Kim smirked, "What do you mean? You blew up the lair like you always do."

"Yeah, but I usually give us enough time to get out."

"Yeah out." Rufus said as he suddenly emerged from the rubble.

"Well either way Drakken's plan was foiled and his lair is ruined, I saw we should go home and get cleaned up." Kim said as she pulled out her Kimmunicator. "Wade can you get us a ride home."

"Woah, what happened to you Kim?" The dark skinned tech guru asked.

"Mr. Stoppable here blew up the lair as usual, but he didn't really give us enough time to get out."

"It was an accident, I'm only human." Ron protested.

"Anyways Wade, how about that ride?"

"It should be there any minute now. Oh and Ron, I got those reservations for you."

"Awesome Wade, you rock."

"Reservations? What reservations? What did Wade get for you Ron?"

"Wade scored me reservations at the nicest restaurant in Upperton for next month."

Kim was about to press further but the sound of helicopter blades and the accompanying blast of rotor wash announced the arrival of their ride from Global Justice and drowned out any further conversation.

V.

As Kim and Ron were getting their ride home, deep inside of the now mostly collapsed and abandoned lair, a humming sound came to a stop. This was replaced with the sound of a seal being broken followed by fluid pouring on to the floor. At the end of the cascade of fluid there was a thump as a form fell out of the chamber that had contained it.

The form was that of a young man with blond hair and not a stitch of clothing on him. After a few sputtering coughs to clear the liquid from it's lungs he stood up and up and found himself standing alone, and naked, in a dimly light and trashed room. Walking towards a reflective surface the young man took a moment to admire it self in the dim light.

"Looking good Rondo." He said as he struck a pose. "But where am I and how did I get here? And why am I naked?"

After looking at some of the wrecked high tech looking equipment around him the young man assessed that he was most likely in some sort of lair, probably one of Drakken's.

"Ahh, I bet Kim and I must have been on a mission and Drakken's lair was blown up.

Maybe that's how I ended up here and somehow I guess I lost more than just my pants this time. Well might as well see about getting out of here."

A couple of hours later Ronald was dressed in a pair of clothes he had found and had managed to work his way out of the wreckage to make his way home. But he was still no closer to figuring out why Kim wasn't there looking for him, or Rufus for that matter. Unless they had already gone home and were simply waiting for him to show up. Ronald figure that had to be the only logical explanation.

After a long walk, Ronald was soon home and was more than ready to take a nice hot shower. Then he could go over to Kim's house and find out why she had left him at the layer. Opening the front door Ronald had only taken a few steps in to the house when he found himself being glomped by his little sister Hana.

"Hi Hana."

"Hi again, brother." She said excitedly.

"I'm going to get cleaned up, OK? I'm kind of dirty from the mission."

"OK again, brother."

"Oh and have you seen Rufus?"

"He's up stairs. He'll be happy to see you again."

Ronald looked at this sister funny for a second before heading up the stairs. He didn't know why she kept saying "again," maybe it was a game she was playing. Ronald let this thought fall from his mind as he stripped off his cloths and made his way to the bathroom. Opening the bathroom door Ronald was surprised to hear that the shower was already running and that someone was already in it.

This wasn't right. Hana was too young to use the shower; besides which she was down stairs, and his parents had their own shower in their master bedroom. Who could be in there? For a half second, a full techno color fantasy of finding Kim in the shower flashed through Ronald's mind. As nice as that the prospect was, the odds of that happening with his family here were pretty small. Grabbing the first thing he could find to use as a weapon, which happened to be the toilet bowl scrubber, Ronald slowly and cautiously approached the shower. Slowly he reached out with his arm; grabbing a hold of the shower curtain; and in one quick movement pulled it back.

Ron was enjoying a nice hot shower after his most recent mission with Kim. After getting a ride back to Middleton, and a quick debrief with Global Justice, Ron escorted his fiancé to her home with the promise of seeing her again for breakfast tomorrow. Finally he was able to go home and get cleaned up.

He was about to turn the water off when something deep down inside of him tingled, his mystic monkey powers were trying to warn him of something. Grabbing the only weapon he had close at hand, Ron brought his back scrubber up to fend off what ever threat was about. He was about to reach for the shower curtain when it suddenly flew to the side to reveal who was on the other side.

Ron's brown eyes stared at an equally brown pair of eyes in the middle of a face centered by a pair of large ears and a blond mess of hair. He was staring at his own reflection, only this reflection wasn't from a mirror.

"Aaaaa!" Both men screamed simultaneously as they both fell backwards while both scrambled for the shower curtain in an attempt to cover themselves.

"Who are you?"

"I'm Ronald."

"No way I'm Ronald."

"What are you doing here?"

"Get out of my bathroom!" Both men shouted at each other.

"I was here first, you leave." The Ron in the bathtub demanded.

"No way, how did you get here? I had to dig my way out of the bottom of Drakken's layer tonight." Ronald, who was sprawled across the bathroom floor demanded.

"What? That's impossible, Kim and I destroyed that layer tonight."

"You were with Kim? If you hurt her I'll…"

"Of coarse I was with Kim, and no I wouldn't hurt her."

"How do I know I can trust you?"

"Trust me? I'm not the imposter walking in to the bathroom I'm already using claiming to be me."

Meanwhile as the two Rons continued their bickering and recriminations back and forth, Mrs. Stoppable was down stairs talking to Hana.

"Hana, have you seen your brother?" Mrs. Stoppable asked.

"Ah ha, they both went up stairs."

"Both? I think your confused Hana, you only have one brother."

The little girls shook her head no before answering confidently, "I saw two brudders. They both went to shower."

"OK, sweetie," Mrs. Stoppable answered. She had gotten what she needed to know despite Hana's games. As momma Stoppable began to ascend the stairs she suddenly heard a shout from the guest bathroom that her son often used. Rushing up the stairs she stopped at the closed bathroom door and knocked on it, "Ron dear, are you OK?"

"Yes/No!" Were both simultaneously given as an answer.

"Ron, are you sure you OK? It sounded like you were screaming in fear."

Just then Mr. Stoppable arrived, "Dear, what's going on? I heard shouting."

"Donald, I think something might be wrong with Ronald, can you go in there and check on him please?"

"Sure thing dear, it's not like there's anything in there I haven't seen before." Donald said as he opened the door and stepped in only to have his eyes filled with a most unique site. Laying there on floor and in the tub, with one shower curtain conveniently ripped in half in an attempt to cover themselves, were two identical copies of his son.

"Dad, thank goodness you're here, help me to subdue this imposter!" Both Ron's shouted at the same time as they pointed accusing fingers at each other.

Mr. Stoppable simply stood there for a moment, blinked, then blinked again, and then walked out of the bathroom shutting the door behind him.

"Donald? Donald honey, what's wrong? Is Ronald OK?" Mrs. Stoppable asked.

"Sorry honey, but there was something in there I haven't seen before."

VI.

"OK, so Ronald is a clone of Ron. And no one had any issue with it? No questions like where did he come from, why was he cloned, who cloned him?" Bonnie asked bring everyone's attention back to the present.

"Depends on who you ask... But there were some issues." Donald answered, "Such as their names for example. Neither boy wanted to change their name so the best we could come up with one used his formal name while the other used his nickname."

"For your other questions, we figured Drakken had secretly cloned him. If we had known that we wouldn't have blown up the lair." Kim answered.

"Yeah, mom, dad, and sis seemed to accept him pretty well." Ron added.

"But I'm guessing you didn't." Bonnie asked.

"No not really. In some ways I felt like I had been violated to have my DNA taken and then sudden I'm presented with what's practically a twin. But I think I took things better than Ronald did, at least I wasn't confused about who was actually the clone."

"Hmmph, you just had to go and bring that up again." Ronald quipped.

"That's because you kept accusing me of being the clone, even though everyone knew I'm the original," Ron countered. "But other than that I did try to get along with Ronald, at least at first."

"At first?" Bonnie asked, "And did Ronald really go around claiming to be the original?"

When Ron didn't answer Ronald finally spoke up, "I've always been Ronald, that's the name I remember using all of my life, how ever short it seems to actually be. I, or we, guess that Drakken must have some how programmed in all of my memories in to me."

"So why doesn't he get along with you now?"

"Because he tried to steal Kim away." Ron supplied when Ronald did not answer, "That and when he attacked me." Ron stated flatly.

"So you're going to bring that up again?" Ronald asked.

"You swung first, and I was trying to keep Kim from being hit."

Soon the two Ronalds were bickering and Bonnie could feel a headache beginning to form in her head. "Enough!" She finally yelled, "I can't take this right now."

She stood up while glaring, "Ronald you said you love me but you didn't care enough to tell me about, about, about this." Bonnie said with a wave of her hand towards the two Ronalds for lack of a good descriptive term. "I know kept a secret from you at first and it ended up with me in the hospital, but at least I realized that I needed to be honest with you. I guess maybe you don't feel the same way." Then as she choked back a sob Bonnie stated that she was leaving.

Everyone sat there for a moment and watched as Bonnie rushed in to the house before they heard the sound of the front door slamming shut.

"I need to go after her." Ronald said as he began to stand up, images of the time Bonnie had walked out on him from his diner flashing through his head.

"Ronald honey, wait. Maybe it would be better if Kim spoke to Bonnie," Mrs. Stoppable suggested.

"Why? I need to talk to her. I need to…"

"Son, listen to your mother. Right now I'm sure Bonnie is both confused and angry and doesn't really know what is going on." Donald added, "Bonnie needs someone who can relate to having to deal with two Rons, and that person is Kim."

Nodding her head in both understanding and agreement, Kim began to chase after Bonnie.

As Kim left the backyard Ronald slowly dropped back to his seat and rested his face in his hands.

"I've hurt her. I lied to her. I did it again, I drove away the woman I love." Ronald mumbled numbly as he continued to sit there in shock.

Hana meanwhile had walked up to Ronald and began to gently pat him on the knee as she watched her brother cry, "Ronald, why are you sad? Bonnie was being mean."

"She wasn't being mean Hana, she's angry because she feels like I lied to her."

"Did you?"

"No he didn't." Ron said coming to his brother's defense for the first time, "He should have told her, but he didn't lie to her because he didn't want to hurt her."

Ron could see the questioning look on his father's face as to why he was defending Ronald. "I'm not trying to fix my relationship with him, but I can see how much Bonnie means to him. He doesn't need to lose her over a misunderstanding."

VII.

Meanwhile Kim had caught up to Bonnie and was attempting to sooth the distraught brunette.

"Bonnie, wait."

"Go away, Kim."

"Bonnie please, I need to talk to you about Ronald."

"I don't want to talk about him and I don't want to talk to you, now leave me alone Kim!" Bonnie shouted as she turned on Kim, her tear streaked face plain to see.

Bonnie was about to keep walking when she suddenly felt Kim grab her and pull her in to a hug. At first Bonnie struggled to break free but after several seconds she simply gave in and began to cry in to Kim's shoulder as the red head soothed her.

"Why? Why does this have to happen to me?" Bonnie began to babble, "Why does he have to break my heart like this? I thought he accepted me, like I accepted him."

"Shh. No one's trying to break your heart Bonnie, least of all Ronald. And he does accept you, more than you know."

"How do you know?" Bonnie accused between sobs.

"Because I know. Here Bonnie let me tell you a story about how both Ron and Ronald almost broke my heart."

Up to this point Bonnie had only thought about how the whole two Ronald issue had been affecting her, she hadn't even bothered to consider that it might have affected someone else just as much, or maybe more. Wiping away the tears from her eyes the brunette began to pull away from Kim when her legs slightly gave out on her.

"Here let's sit down." Kim suggest as she caught Bonnie and helped her to a sitting position on the street curb.

Once they were seated on the curb Kim began her story, "After Ronald showed up it took a few weeks to sort things out. We ran I don't know how many medical tests on him but they all confirmed that he's a flesh and blood clone, complete with all of Ron's memories. In some ways it was scary how accurate and intimate some of his memories were."

"The only difference seemed to be that Ronald insisted that he always remembered going by the name Ronald and that he kept claiming that Ron was really the clone. At first it was sort of like Ron suddenly had himself a twin brother and I was willing to accept him as such. But like I said, he had a complete set of Ron's memories, so he felt as though Ron was trying to steal me away from him."

Bonnie looked at Kim's face and could see the range of emotions that crossed the redheads face as she recalled the events of her story. Obviously she wasn't telling Bonnie all of the details, but Bonnie's musing was cut off as Kim continued her tale.

"They would bicker back and forth all the time. Sometimes about trivial stuff like brothers usually do, and sometimes about more important stuff like who was the clone and who was the real Ron. Usually this didn't bother me to much. Ron was my fiancé, not his clone/twin. As far as I was concerned Ronald was a twin and not a clone and I was dating his brother."

"But they began to bicker and fight over me as well. At first it was little things like seeing who could impress me the most, make me dinner, then Ronald actually started trying to take me out on dates." Kim paused for a second before speaking again, "I know what your thinking, how many women would have loved to be in that sort of a situation."

Despite herself Bonnie actually chuckled a little.

"In hind sight," was Kim's reply with a grin. "I can laugh at it now. But at the time it was a lot of drama. I'm a traditional girl there was no way I was going to try some sort of weird arrangement of living with two men who for all intents were twins. So I decided that no matter what I was going to stick with Ron. Things really changed for the worst between Ron and Ronald when they got in to a fight in front of the fanciest restaurant in Upperton."

Kim was looking down, collecting her thoughts before continuing.

"Ronald had tricked me in to believing that he was Ron and had taken me to dinner, trying to win me over or something. Anyway, we were about to sit down to dinner when the real Ron showed up."

Bonnie's face gave away the fear she was feeling, but Kim continued.

"They began to argue with each other and we were asked to leave and to never come back. Once in the parking lot Ron accused Ronald of being a sneaky double dealing bastard for trying to steal me away. Ronald must have considered the bastard comment as a bit of a low blow as he was always being called a clone and he got really angry with Ron."

"Ronald swung at Ron and the two actually came to blows with each other. At first I was just going to let them act like fools and get it out of their system but I could tell that while Ron was pulling his punches Ronald wasn't, he looked like he really wanted to hurt Ron. I decided to step in and try to break up the fight. Ronald just happened to being throwing a punch when I stepped in between them and it connected my face."

Bonnie gasped and covered her mouth, while Kim continued.

"All I ended up with was a black eye... but I think that punch, it broke Ronald's heart. He just stood there in shock... As if he couldn't believe he had just hurt me and watched as I turned away from him and ran to Ron. After that, Ronald ran off and we didn't see him for better than two days."

Bonnie's face had fresh tears but needed to hear the rest, so she kept still waiting for Kim to continue.

"Ronald eventually came back but he wouldn't talk to Ron. He did speak to me once before leaving for Lowerton, he said that he hoped we were happy and that it would be better for everyone if he just left. It was really sad to see how depressed he looked as he told me that he had to accept that he had lost me to Ron and that he was leaving Middleton."

"Wow. I had no idea Kim." Bonnie finally managed to say.

"Yeah, the girl who can do anything can even break a heart even if she doesn't want to."

The two women simply sat there for several minutes in silence.

"Bonnie, will you come back with me? Ronald needs you." Then after a slight pause Kim continued, "I don't know everything, heck I know very little, about what brought you and Ronald together. But I know that he cares about you and accepts you for you. Can you do the same for him?"

Bonnie had a look of doubt and concern on her face, but she stood up just the same. "Kim, I can accept that Ronald is a clone, or a twin if you want to think of it that way. But I don't know how I feel about him keeping that information from me."

"Fair enough. But come on, I'll tell you another story about Ronald as we walk back."

"How much do you two get together?" Bonnie asked as the two woman slowly walked.

"After the fight and when he left for Lowerton, I've only seen him twice since then. He didn't even come to the wedding."

"And you were surprised about that?"

"More disappointed than anything else. I guess I was more willing to accept him as a brother in law than he was willing to accept me as a sister in law." Kim then stopped and slightly shook her head, "But that doesn't really answer your question though does it. Anyways, after the wedding I only saw Ronald two times before tonight. Once was when he came over for Sabbath dinner. He didn't speak to me, or to Ron, but through Donald…"

"Who?"

"Sorry, Mr. Stoppable. He would only speak to either Ron or me through him. It was an ackward conversation, but at least Ron convinced Ronald to accept some of his Naco royalties."

"Must have been a small cut then because Ronald sure isn't living the high life." Bonnie snarked.

Kim was about to chide Bonnie for the comment but then realized it was said more as a defense of Ronald than a jab at Ron. "No it was a fair fifty percent cut. The first time Ron got his royalties it was an upfront lump sum to avoid any legal issues. Now he receives a check from the company every month for a few thousand dollars."

"Oh, I had no idea."

"Well it's a good thing, I think it helps to keep both of them grounded, they have a tendency to let money go to their heads."

Bonnie chuckled slightly, "At least Ronald doesn't let it go to his head, he barely even touches it. Did you know I run the books for his diner? Wow that was quite a mess to get cleaned up."

"Ronald did mention that he had someone who has helping to run his diner and manage the books, someone he was dating. He just never told me who."

Bonnie looked at Kim in confusion.

"Bonnie, tonight is the first time that I found out you are Ronald's girlfriend. While you were in the hospital my mom brought Ronald home for dinner and to let him get some rest. Problem was she didn't know that my dad had invited both Ron and myself over as well. Long story short Ron didn't treat Ronald very nicely and Ronald ended up leaving for his parents place. The next day I came to apologize to Ronald for how Ron acted. Ronald said he would only accept my apology over a Naco."

"I guess he never has outgrown his love for those things." Bonnie smirked.

"Nope. But buying him a Naco gave us a chance to talk. Even though he wouldn't tell me who he was dating I could tell just how much Ronald cared about you."

"Well I can imagine why, we never really got along in high school."

"No we didn't. But for what it's worth Bonnie, I'm glad your Ronald's girlfriend."

"Why's that?"

"Because despite our past history I can see that you make Ronald happy. And I can tell the feeling is mutual."

VIII.

Even though Bonnie hadn't fled very far, the time it took for her to return to the Stoppable's was long and slow. Despite the heart to heart Kim and Bonnie were having, every so often Bonnie had to stop and just get a hold on her emotions. She was still torn between killing Ronald or holding him until the pain went away. Realizing what they both have gone through together in such a short time, she knew which way she was leaning.

"I'm glad you found her," Mr. Stoppable greeted them once they finally arrived back at the house. "Bonnie, I'm sorry for what you've gone through tonight but there's another man inside that's just worried sick about you."

"Thanks... Where is Ronald anyway?"

"He's up in Hana's room, on the floor staring at the ceiling."

Answering the look of confusion he replied, "That's where he would go when the world got too much for him. Ron used to do that too, when it was his room."

"I think I'll go up and see him."

"Yea, I know he'd like that." She said while looking at the redhead. "Kim used to visit Ron too during those times."

Reaching her destination Bonnie stopped in front of a door with a sign on it with HANA in bright colors. She was about to knock but stopped and listened in to the conversation she could just make out that was coming from inside.

"Well Rufus buddy it looks like I blew it again."

"Ahh, sad." The naked mole rat said as he petted Ronald's face.

"Yeah I really am buddy. For the first time since Kim I was happy. I had someone to share my life with, to be my…"

"Your better half?" Bonnie interjected as she slowly opened the door.

"Bonnie!" Ronald exclaimed as he bolted up right, sending poor Rufus tumbling to the ground, and towards Bonnie to embrace her.

"Easy there. I'm not in the mood for any affection just right now. But I am willing to talk."

"So you're still mad at me then?"

"Yes, a little."

Ronald looked as though he deflated a little at those words and sat back down on the floor. But he was soon surprised when Bonnie sat down next to him.

"But I won't hold it against you. Look Ronald we've both kept secrets from each other, but we also care about one another. I want to try to work things out with you if you want to try to work things out with me. OK?"

"Yes Bonnie, I do want to work things out with you."

"Good. Then the first thing you can do is to properly introduce me to your family."

"What? You mean the adventure of your first meeting wasn't enough for you?" Ronald asked with a goofy grin.

"Afraid not buster, I want your family to know me as your girlfriend, not some head case who attacks people in their backyard over a kiss."

"Fair enough, and speaking of a kiss." Ronald said as he leaned in towards Bonnie and two began to kiss for several minutes until they were interrupted by a disapproving Rufus who squeaked "Get a room."

"So you don't mind being not being with the original?" Ronald asked.

"What? Are you kidding?" Bonnie replied with her biggest smile. "Kim has Ron, but I have Ronald Stoppable, 2.0, sans naked mole rat." Before coming in for another kiss, much to Rufus's annoyment.

TBC


End file.
